Over My Head
by eenak
Summary: Quinn is back as HBIC and is dating Rachel. She hosts a sleepover for her girlfriend and squad mates to get to know each other. What could possibly go wrong?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - Obviously do not own Glee or any of its characters, because if I did things would be going very differently.**

**AN: This is my first Glee attempt, so feedback is greatly appreciated (plus it keeps me motivated and posting). This is based on a prompt from the R_Q prompt meme on LJ (started it back in June and it has been moldering on my hard drive ever since).**

**This has not been beta'd so all mistakes are mine.  
**

* * *

Rachel stood on Quinn's doorstep, nervously toying with the cell phone she held clasped in one slightly sweaty palm. The air lay thick and still around her, the humidity oppressive, making each breathe just a little difficult to draw. A breeze would be welcome, something to at least move the air, offer a slight bit of relief, but the night remained calm. Rachel drew in another slightly too deep breathe, and tried to channel some of that calm.

She had been standing on the doorstep for the last two minutes, rooted into place like a statue, afraid to ring the doorbell. Rachel, who prided herself on her ability to face every new situation with unflappable grace and ease, was now rendered immobile by nerves. Able, even eager, to sing to an auditorium packed with people, she was paralyzed by a stomach twisting dread about what awaited her on the other side of the door. She wondered if this is what others referred to when they talked about stage fright. She cataloged the feeling, though certainly not pleasant, it might prove useful for a future role, and a great actress used every tool at her disposal.

Drawing a final, fortifying breathe she reached out to depress the small white oval. Rachel jumped and almost dropped her phone when it buzzed the alert for an incoming text. Managing to retain it in her slick grip she pressed the button to display the message, more than eager to take advantage of this opportunity for delay. To ignore a call, or a text in this case, would be rude. Rachel Berry was many things, but she had always been unfailingly polite and well mannered. Now was certainly no time to abandon a lifetime of teaching.

_Hey Rach, where are you? Everybody else is already here. Hope I see you soon._

Rachel smiled to herself as she read the text. One of her personal pet peeves was the abomination known as text speak that plagued almost all forms of electronic communication. She had been scrolling through the, mostly scathing, comments on her MySpace page when she had simply had enough. After the fifth barely comprehensible mishmash of letters, numbers and characters she had launched into what, even she could admit, was a full blown diva tirade. In retrospect she was willing to acknowledge that her ire may have not been directed _solely _at the format of the comments. She remained adamant however, that if you were too stupid or lazy to form complete sentences when you had access to a full and functioning keyboard your opinion should be barred from posting. Quinn, who had been hanging out with Rachel at the time, said nothing, but since that day every text she had received from the blonde had been grammatically perfect.  
_  
I was just about to ring the bell._

Rachel deemed that the two minutes she had stood on the stoop, unable to ring the bell, was not pertinent information, and that omitting it did not constitute a lie. Honesty was almost as important to Rachel as politeness. Most people found her honesty annoying, but she held staunch to the belief that there was very little to be gained from lying. How was one to grow and improve if others were not honest about their faults? Constructive criticism was the bedrock of personal growth and Rachel refused to abandon it just to avoid a few years of torment while in high school. Slight bending of the truth and omissions were a completely different matter.

Glad to have a few more precious seconds to compose herself, Rachel slid her phone into her shorts pocket. She smoothed her hand down the front of her spaghetti tank, trying to erase invisible wrinkles, and tugged lightly on the hem of her shorts. She had allowed Quinn to take her shopping several times, acquiescing to all of the blonde's wardrobe suggestions. She was aware that others found the way she dressed obnoxious, though she really didn't see why presenting a tidy and well constructed ensemble was apparently the sign of a deep character flaw worthy of endless mockery. But in the world of McKinley High it was, so when Quinn had picked out shorter shorts then she would have chosen and shirts that bared more skin then she was accustomed too, she had simply smiled and told the clerk to ring them up. She reasoned that a few changes to her wardrobe did not constitute an abandoning of her sense of self, and instead served to broaden her horizons and create another avenue to grow and learn. That, and her girlfriend had a tendency to touch and stroke any exposed bit of flesh; so in this case less was definitely more.

The door suddenly swung open and Quinn was greeting her with a broad grin. Rachel unconsciously returned the smile, her nerves dissipating with the appearance of the blonde. Two arms reached out and pulled her close, enveloping her in a crushing hug. The heat of the early September night made the embrace hot and sticky. What, under normal circumstances would have been uncomfortable and unpleasant, was instead pure bliss. Rachel reached out to return the hug, squeezing Quinn tightly as a bead of sweat rolled down the middle of her back.

Quinn pulled back just far enough to capture Rachel's lips in a light kiss. A tiny chill ran down Rachel's back at the gentle contact. They had started officially dating a little less then a month ago, and regardless how many times they had kissed, Rachel still felt that little zing each time. Part of her still couldn't quite wrap her mind around that fact that Quinn Fabray, once the most popular girl at McKinley and newly reinstated captain of the Cheerios, was dating her, bottom of the social ladder, Rachel Berry. Not content with the teasing kiss, Rachel leaned forward to deepen the contact. She gently sucked Quinn's bottom lip between hers and ran her tongue lightly over it, eliciting a soft groan from her girlfriend. Her girlfriend! Quinn let the kiss linger, bringing her tongue out to play with Rachel's, before she broke the contact and rested her forehead against the brunette's.

"Hey, you." Quinn smiled at her softly. "Glad you could make it. What took you so long? It's not like you to be late."

"I was..unavoidably detained." Technically she had been, if only by her crippling case of nerves. Punctuality was equally as important to Rachel as honesty and politeness, her failure to arrive on time chaffed. She fixed an eager grin on her face. "But I am now present and accounted for so, let's get this party started!" She hoped that Quinn didn't notice the forced cheer in her voice. Being here this evening was actually one of the last places she wanted to be.

Her fathers had decided to go on away for a long weekend. Rachel, one of the most responsible teens you were ever likely to encounter, had been left home alone without a second thought. Rachel, while not one to plan wild parties, had immediately recognized the wonderful opportunity this presented for some uninterrupted quality time with her insanely attractive girlfriend. She was a good girl, but she was still a hormonal teenager. She was also a planner, and from the minute her fathers had announced their impromptu trip her brain had kicked into high gear, wanting to plan the most perfect romantic weekend possible on such short notice.

She had spent hours online, searching for a vegan meal that she was confident Quinn would enjoy too. She was well aware that her food choices could sometimes be less then appealing to others and didn't want her girlfriend to lack because of it. Candles had been purchased, playlists had been created, perfume had been purchased, and just to be prepared for all outcomes lingerie had been chosen. A girl could never be too sure. If this weekend turned out to be _the _weekend she didn't want to be caught with her pants down with only her practical cotton bikini briefs. Well she wouldn't mind the pants down part, but while perfectly serviceable for everyday use, her undergarments simply would not do for a romantic weekend tryst. Everything was planned, and she had invited Quinn over under the guise of a movie night, not wanting to spoil the surprise. It was all perfect. Right up until the moment Quinn called to cancel.

Quinn leaned forward and gave Rachel a quick peck on the lips. "You're cute when you try to use lingo." A small frown formed between Rachel's brows as she pouted. People still said that, she'd heard them, it was a perfectly valid expression. Quinn raised a finger and gently smoothed the slight crease that had formed, her expression growing more serious. "I know this isn't your ideal way to spend Friday night." An understatement if ever there was one, and apparently her guise of happiness hadn't been as effective as she had hoped. More practice time in front of her mirror was clearly required.

"You just have to give them a chance. Once you get to know them you'll see the girls aren't all that bad." Quinn looked at her with pleading eyes. Rachel wondered if she had fallen into some alternate reality or if Quinn was suffering from memory loss. She was here at Quinn's urging, and because frankly going a night without seeing her girlfriend was not terribly appealing, not because of any particular desire to get to know _the girls. _In fact if she never had to be in the same room with _the girls_ between now and her dying day she would count herself truly blessed. But Quinn had asked, begged really, and over her own better instincts, Rachel had reluctantly agreed.

The girls in question were of course Quinn's former pom-pom posse, the Cheerios. Once their all powerful leader, Quinn had fallen from grace when it was discovered she was pregnant. Now that the baby was out of the picture the fickle squad had apparently welcomed her back with open arms. They had decided to throw a last minute party to celebrate Quinn's return. When Quinn had told her Thursday about the party Rachel had been disappointed, seeing her plans for a romantic weekend ending quicker then Glory Days' Broadway run.

Rachel was not overly thrilled in general with Quinn's decision to return to the Cheerio's, and all of her objections were admittedly selfish. When Quinn had ruled the school as the Head Bitch in Charge, she had made it her personal mission to make Rachel's life miserable as only teenage girls can. Slushies, dumpsters, hurtful nicknames, sexually explicit bathroom graffiti, all had been part of Quinn's arsenal and she had not been conservative in their deployment. A lot had changed over the last year, and in the last three months especially, but Rachel was still uncomfortably aware of the not so distant past.

In the last months of her pregnancy there had been a discernible change in the formerly caustic cheerleader. Rachel wasn't sure if it was pending motherhood, or her torment at the hands of former followers, but Quinn became introspective, quite, and a certain vulnerability had developed. Against her better judgment, Rachel had extended the tentative offer of friendship, knowing all to well what it was to be a social pariah. To her surprise Quinn had accepted. What began as a casual friendship had blossomed into a much deeper one when Quinn had given her baby up for adoption. To Rachel's birth mother of all people. An odd sort of bond had developed between them over their shared loss; Quinn for the daughter that she would never really know, and Rachel for the mother that she had briefly found but instead of embracing her had embraced Quinn's baby. It still stung.

The odd bond that had brought them together had only strengthened and grown over the summer, until one day it had all changed again with a single kiss. Now Rachel was afraid it was all going to change back again. She was painfully aware of the powerful pull of popularity, and the havoc that allure could wreak. Quinn had changed, showering Rachel with attention and tenderness, but the specter of the old Quinn, her tormentor, was always lurking. She knew Quinn felt horribly about her past actions, she had tearfully told her on several occasions how sorry she was. Rachel had assured her each time that she forgave her, to forget the past, and instead focus on the future. Rachel wished she could believe her own words so easily, despite all her best efforts, a tendril of doubt still lingered. It wasn't that she didn't trust Quinn, she did. When they were alone together everything was perfect.

Of course that was the problem, the special bubble of isolation that had allowed them to grow and nurture their fledgling relationship had dissipated. School had started, and Sue Sylvester had wasted no time reclaiming her former captain, the Cheerios had swooped in soon after to reclaim their re-throned queen. Rachel had subtly tried to persuade Quinn that joining the cheering squad would be a bad idea. Quinn had assured her, quite bluntly, that Rachel had nothing to worry about and that nothing would change between them. Subtlety was another thing Rachel added to her list of self improvement projects.

She had wanted to press the issue but the wounded, slightly haunted look, which had entered Quinn's soft hazel eyes had forestalled her. Her girlfriend hated being reminded of that time when she had been less then loving, and frankly she didn't much like remembering it either. So she had dropped the subject, and vowed to stay positive, to not obsess about what could go wrong. Everything had been going well, okay it was only the first week of school, but a week with no slushy attacks was counted a success in her books, until the Cheerios had decided to throw this little bash. Rachel's first reaction to the news had understandably been disappointment, but she didn't want to stand in the way of Quinn regaining some of her old life back, and had encouraged her girlfriend to go and have fun with her friends, they could do movie night another time. Then Quinn had dropped the bombshell that she wanted Rachel to come along too.

Years of torment had taught her to be cautious, and her sense of self preservation was telling her that this was a bad idea. Beware Cheerios bearing false gifts, or in this case party invites. She may have a deep and abiding love for classic movie musicals, but even she recognized this as the cliched plot to almost every ugly duckling teen drama since 1980. She was poised to decline, but then Quinn was looking at her with that soft smile, slowly batting those big hazel eyes, and softly stroking her forearm. Before she knew it she was agreeing to attend. Which brought her to her current predicament, about to face a room full of former tormentors, the only real ally their former ring leader.

"Oh Quinn I'm not worried about the girls. I'm sure once they get to know me we will all get along famously. Enough stalling, lead the way." Truth be told she was very worried about the girls, but she didn't want to burden Quinn with that. Pulling back she broke the embrace, feeling her shirt cling to her belly where the press of their bodies had caused perspiration to build. "What is on the agenda for tonight's soiree?" She clasped Quinn's hand in hers, needing the reassurance that the contact provided.

"Oh you know just typical sleepover stuff." Rachel didn't want to point out that she did not in fact know, since this was the last sleepover she had been to since she was eight. "Movies, games, you brought your swim suit right?"

"On under my clothes. Much more efficient." While it had been the Cheerios idea to have the sleepover it had been decided that Quinn's house would be the best place to have it. The heat of August had yet to dissipate and it was still uncomfortably hot. Her large in-ground pool, and the fact that they would have the house to themselves, made it the perfect location. As they walked down the hallway Rachel heard the murmur of female voices from the family room. Over the last months she had come to know Quinn's home almost as well as her own. Quinn's mom was still adjusting to the idea that her daughter had a girlfriend, but after the estrangement that her pregnancy caused she was trying her best to make amends. Part of those amends were the meetings, tonight's was AA, the nearest one was an hour away in Toledo, the other part was embracing Rachel into her home.

When the doorway to the family room was only a few paces away Rachel felt Quinn tug on her hand, pulling her to a stop. She sent her girlfriend a questioning look, really just wanting to get this over with before she lost her nerve. Delaying the inevitable rarely helped anything, and the nervous build up to an event was often times far worse then the actual event itself. Quinn tugged her closer and gave her one last kiss. Okay maybe delaying did have its benefits.

"Relax, don't be nervous, just have fun. If it turns out to be truly awful I promise I will make it up to you." Quinn breathed the words softly across her mouth, the husky quality of her voice letting Rachel know exactly how she planned to make it up to her. Rachel pulled back to smile are her reassuringly.

"I'll be fine. I have faced far more unpleasant situations, then a sleepover with my girlfriend." Rachel smiled at her teasingly. "Though I may hold you to that offer. I had plans for you tonight. Plans which this little party neatly derailed." Rachel lightly ran the fingers of her free hand lightly up Quinn's arm, wrist to shoulder, and then back. A pout formed on Quinn's bow shaped lips and one eyebrow rose in question.

"Plans? You never said anything about plans, I thought we were just getting together for movies."

"Well you thought incorrectly, I didn't want to say anything and ruin the surprise."

Quinn groaned softly. "Rachel! If you had something planned you should have said. It's not like a sleepover with the squad is that crucial."

"On the contrary Quinn. I know how much you missed being part of the Cheerios. You have just been reinstalled as captain, and this is the first get together that you've been able to have with them since.." Rachel broke off, knowing that the baby was still a tender subject. "..last year," she continued awkwardly. "It would have been a potential step back for you to refuse. My plans will keep, we have all weekend."

Quinn looked like she wanted to argue, but her insatiable need to know stilled further protest. "So what were the plans?"

"I can't divulge that Quinn. As they have not been spoiled, simply delayed, it would ruin the surprise. If you want to know you will simply have to wait." Rachel knew this would drive her girlfriend nuts. Quinn hated being out of the loop, Rachel attributed it to all those years running the gossip mill at McKinley. While she was still loathe to tip her hand, she had to ensure that the blonde didn't book her entire weekend. As predicted the blonde let out a frustrated groan.

"Rachel that's just mean! You know the only thing I hate more than surprises, is when someone tells me about the surprise, and then refuses to give me any information."

"If I must suffer you must suffer."

"Suffer? Why would the plans involve suffering?" Quinn doggedly asked.

Rachel smiled, her expression developing a slightly predatory glint. "Lets just say they involved you, me, and a house to ourselves." Quinn groaned, more loudly this time, at the pronouncement. "Alas, your resurgent social life has temporarily postponed my plan. Don't worry there is always tomorrow."

"Won't your Dads be around then?"

"No, they decided to take a mini-vacation to make sure their relationship doesn't get stale. I believe having a teenager in the house puts a certain crimp in their sexual activities and they need these periodic trips to let loose."

"Rachel!" Quinn squealed in horror. "That is so gross, how can you say that? Eww, just eww."

"Quinn, they are both healthy adult males." Rachel didn't see what the fuss was all about. "I would actually be more concerned if they weren't engaging in routine sexual congress." Quinn flinched, and scrunched her face up in disgust. "Studies have shown that couples that can maintain that spark of sexual desire stand a much better chance of sustaining a successful long term relationship. The rate of infidelity in monogamous relationships drops by..."

Quinn reached up and clamped a hand over the brunette's mouth. "Whatever you say Dr. Ruth. I'm glad your dads are so happy but trust me when I say I really don't want the details." Quinn dropped her hand and tugged on Rachel's arm. "C'mon, lets go face the inquisition." Rachel knew the comment was meant as a joke, but she wasn't so sure that a hot poker in the eye wouldn't be preferable.

The moment of truth had arrived and as they stepped through the doorway, Rachel braced herself for the worst. She was half expecting a slushy attack, which was silly really, Quinn would hardly allow them to throw the sticky, sugary drink in her family-room, it would totally destroy the leather furniture.

"Hey everyone, Rachel's finally here." Quinn dragged her into the room, and pushed her slightly out in front of her. Rachel scanned the room, when she had accepted the invitation she hadn't really thought to ask Quinn who would be attending. She was relieved to see that it was a relatively small group, only five girls counting Santana and Brittany. They were sprawled out across the three leather couches; sheets had been put down as a concession to the heat and to prevent their skin from sticking. She noted with some surprise that they were in casual clothes, for some reason she had expected them to all be in uniform.

Her relief that the group was small was short lived when she noticed who exactly was there. Santana and Brittany, of course, and though she would hardly classify her and Santana's relationship as friendly, they had established a truce of sorts. Rachel would try to not talk non-stop and irritate the fiery Latina, and Santana would try not to hurl hurtful barbs at her. It was in imperfect solution but for the most part it worked out pretty well. Next to her, practically in her lap, Rachel really didn't know who they thought there were fooling, sat Brittany. Rachel had never been able to get a good handle on the sweet, soft-spoken blonde, while she more or less went along with anything Santana proposed, there didn't seem to be any genuine malice in her actions.

Sitting together, though nowhere near as closely as Brittany and Santana, were Stacy May and Sarah Bean. Rachel had never formally spoken to either girl, but she was well acquainted with them. Stacy had a preference for lime slushies, extra large, while Sarah was a proponent of the verbal assault. When Quinn had been banished to the social leper colony of Glee, these two had stepped in to fill the void left behind. They were also the ones that had initiated the slushy attacks against Quinn, when all of the details of her pregnancy came to light. Not for the first time Rachel found herself marveling at the capricious nature of the high school social hierarchy.

The third girl Rachel couldn't put a name to, which she took as a good sign, if the cheerleader had been one of her regular tormentors she would have made sure to find out. Rachel didn't advocate revenge, per se, but figured it couldn't hurt to be prepared, and having an accurate list of targets was essential to any successful revenge plot.

"About damn time Berry," Santana grumbled. "Quinn wouldn't let us do anything but sit here until you showed."

"I apologize for my tardiness. As you know I hold punctuality in the highest regard. I would have been here sooner.."

"Whatever," the Latina cut her off. "You're here now so maybe we can finally do something besides sit here and sweat."

"Stacy, Sarah, Allison, have you met Rachel?" Quinn broke in, while Rachel and Santana had come to an understanding, it was still best to limit their interactions.

Rachel glanced at her girlfriend out of the corner of her eye. Surely she couldn't be that clueless. She might not like to talk about the first two year's of high school, and her treatment of the brunette, but surely she couldn't have forgotten the part at least two of these girls had played in the ongoing torment.

"Um, no, not formally," Stacy replied, clearly just as puzzled by the question. "But I recognize her from around school." Rachel bit back a tart reply. She should recognize her, as she had thrown ten lime, four grape, three cherry, and one orange slushy, at her since the start of freshman year. Instead of responding she simply smiled politely in reply.

"Well," Quinn continued on, Rachel could hear the thread of nervous tension in the blonde's voice; maybe she wasn't so clueless after all. "What does everyone want to do? We can do movies, games.." Quinn let the question trail off.

"I think we should just hang out for a little. I mean it's been so long and we have a lot to catch up on. Plus we hardly know anything about Rachel." Though Stacy was smiling Rachel couldn't help but wonder if there was an ulterior motive at play, but Quinn wanted her to get along with her friends, so she tramped down her doubt.

"Sounds like a splendid idea. The act of polite social discourse to ascertain others likes and dislikes is becoming a lost art." Rachel knew she was babbling, it always got worse when she was nervous, and she hadn't been this nervous since right after her and Quinn's first kiss. Her nerves had led her to a five minute ramble about the nature of sexual attraction, the varying theories about sexual fluidity, the propensity for some girls to experiment with their sexuality in their late teens, and finally an analysis of the Kinsey scale. The lecture probably could have gone ten minutes, but Quinn had mercifully shut her up with another kiss.

"Huh?" Brittany asked, clearly puzzled.

"She means we should talk and get to know each other and shit," Santana translated.

"Does anyone want anything to drink?" Quinn was still standing by the doorway, her restless fingers betraying her nerves.

"You got any beer?" Santana questioned.

"Um, no, no beer."

"Whatever flavor pop you have on hand is fine with me, diet would be great," Rachel offered, not wanting her girlfriend to dwell to much on the subject of alcohol. Quinn hadn't really told a lot of people about her mother attempt to stop drinking, and Santana wasn't really the heartfelt revelation type of friend.

"I could really go for a slushy," Stacy piped up. "Couldn't you Sarah? They are just so refreshing in this heat. Anyone up for a run to the store?"

Rachel stiffened involuntarily at the mention of the frosty beverage. She thought she caught a hint of malice in the cheerleaders voice but couldn't be sure. Quinn rested her hand on Rachel's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Rachel just got here I don't really want to run out," Quinn replied.

"Pops fine with me then," Stacy replied easily, making Rachel doubt her earlier fear. Get a grip Berry, not everyone is out to get you. Sarah and Allison nodded their assent as well.

"Okay, I'll go get the drinks. Rachel why don't you sit and get know everyone." Quinn pushed her gently towards the sofa that Allison was seated on. Rachel balked slightly and went turned around to face her girlfriend.

"Are you sure you don't want help with the beverages? That much liquid can be quite heavy, I don't want you to strain anything." Rachel pleaded with her eyes for Quinn to not leave her alone in a room full of Cheerios. Either Quinn wasn't picking up her distress signal, or she chose to ignore it.

"Don't be silly." Quinn roller her eyes. "I am a Cheerio, we spend most of the day tossing each other into the air. Go. Sit. Mingle." Rachel sighed, knowing this battle had been lost. Quinn had that determined look in her eye that meant she was getting her way, come hell or high water. Rachel felt Quinn turn her shoulders and point her back towards the group of lounging cheerleaders.

She gingerly walked over and took a seat, perching on the edge of the sofa next to Allison.

"Hi." Rachel smiled awkwardly, and held out her hand. "I'm Rachel. I don't mean to be rude but I don't recognize you from around school."

"Oh, well I just moved here this summer," Allison stammered. Well that certainly explained why she hadn't been able to put a name to the girl. The girl refused to meet her eyes, and Rachel decided she must be shy. Odd that, a shy cheerleader, most couldn't wait to be the center of attention. "Um, nice shirt."

"Oh, why thank you. I just got it last week on a shopping excursion," Rachel replied brightly. Getting compliments on her appearance was a new development, one she discovered she enjoyed immensely.

"Yeah Rachel that _is_ a nice shirt, though it's not really your usual style is it?" Sarah asked a patently false smile firmly in place.

"No, not my usual choice in apparel. Quinn and I went shopping and she picked it out for me," Rachel replied warily, bracing for the typical caustic reply.

"Oh that explains it then," Sarah answered, her tone thoughtful. Here it comes, thought Rachel with weary resignation. "Quinn always did have wonderful taste in clothes." Rachel let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, and rolled her tense shoulders; mingling while being on high alert was exhausting work.

"Yes, she does." Rachel paused, not really sure what to say. "So, what does one usually talk about at these gatherings?"

"Oh you know, who's hot, who's not, how horrible Coach Sylvester is, the latest school gossip, who is on the hit list for slush…" Stacy broke off, and brought her hand to cover her mouth. "Shit, I'm sorry." She didn't look sorry in the least. "That's probably a sore subject."

Rachel smiled tightly in return. "Nonsense. Just as long as I'm not still on the top of the list."

"Of course not," Sarah sounded slightly scandalized. "Now that you're _friends_ with Quinn, we could never slushy you." Rachel didn't miss the emphasis on the word friend, she opened her mouth to retort, when she was stopped by the sound of ice clinking against glasses. Take a breath Berry, the last thing Quinn wants is for you to launch into her _friends._

"Everybody getting along?" Quinn appeared in the doorway, sounding slightly winded, bearing a large tray full of snacks.

"Of course Q, why wouldn't we be," Stacy reassured her with a smile. Rachel grimaced, she hated when people referred to Quinn as Q, she always had the insane urge to follow it with either –ball or –tip. "We were just complimenting Rachel on her new threads."

"Oh I know, isn't it cute," Quinn gushed as she walked over and placed the tray of drinks on the coffee table. Quinn squeezed into the small bit of space left between Rachel and the arm of the sofa. It was a tight fit, and the temperature made it a bit uncomfortable, but Rachel couldn't have been happier. The insecure part of her worried that Quinn wouldn't want to seem to _friendly_ in front of the Cheerios.

Quinn reached up and brushed Rachel's long brunette locks back, exposing her left shoulder. Quinn rested her hand on the newly exposed flesh and ran her thumb in light, caressing circles. "I told her she has such great shoulders and arms she shouldn't hide them all the time. Don't you guys think?"

"Uh, yeah, we don't really spend our time checking out Berry," Santana replied in a disgusted tone. The comment elicited some answering laughs of agreement from the other cheerleaders, Quinn scowled in annoyance.

"I think Quinn's right," Brittany replied thoughtfully after the chuckles died down, running her eyes over the singer. "Rachel has really nice muscle tone and definition. I never really noticed before but Rachel's kinda hot." Rachel felt herself flush under the appraising gaze.

"Brittany!" Santana protested loudly, sounding horrified. "It is _not_ okay to perv on..on Berry. Especially not in front of yo..her girlfriend." If anyone noticed Santana's almost slip they let it pass. Rachel resisted, barely, the urge to roll her eyes at the dense Cheerio, anyone with eyes and a pulse knew there was something more than friendship between the two squad mates.

Santana shook her head, as if to try and dispel the disturbing thought of anyone, let alone two someones, finding Berry attractive. "Ok so after that little revelation I definitely need a drink, or ten, who's up for a game of I Never?"


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: For all those that have left feedback, a great big thank you! It truly does keep me motivated.  
**

**Ann - can't promise to update super often, my writing speed is somewhere around that of a snail on a slat flat, but I am hoping to shoot for once a week. Each part should be fairly short, and there will likely be five parts total, so this will not drag on nearly as badly as another fic which I will not name (and to anyone that has read it, deepest apologies but plans are still in the works to finish it...one day), but until then, on to the Faberry goodness.  
**

Chapter 2

* * *

Rachel glanced quickly towards Quinn to gauge her girlfriend's reaction to the suggestion of a drinking game. Quinn sent her a barely perceptible smile and grasped her hand, giving it a small squeeze letting her know that she was okay. "Sorry San, there isn't any liquor in the house."

The Latina sent Quinn a surprised look before recovering and reaching for her bag on the floor. "Well that won't be a problem, since I figured spending a night with Berry would require copious amounts of liquid tranquilizers, I made sure I brought my own." Santana pulled her hand out to reveal a nearly full bottle of vodka.

A look of disapproval flashed briefly in Quinn's eyes before she sent her friend a tight smile and stood up. "Great, let me just go find some shot glasses." Rachel watched her girlfriend walk across the room towards the now empty wet bar before turning back to face the group.

"So how does one play this game?" Rachel questioned. Stacy and Sarah looked at each other before snickering; Santana just rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"Seriously Berry? How can you never have played this?" Before she could form a retort, Brittany leaned over and gave Santana a small swat on her upper arm.

"San, be nice." Brittany sent Rachel an apologetic look and she smiled her thanks to the blonde in return.

"Whatever," Santana huffed. "Since Berry has apparently been living in a convent...everyone goes around in a circle saying things they have never done, if you have done what is said, you drink."

"Oh, well that sounds simple enough. This should be an enjoyable way to get to know each other." Rachel smiled broadly at the group, wanting them to know she was genuine in her desire to get to know them. Okay so that wasn't technically accurate, but they didn't need to know that.

Santana snorted. "Right. I'm sure it will be quite the experience for you." Quinn rejoined the group and placed seven pony shot glasses in the center of the coffee table beside the bottle of vodka. Santana sent the glasses a look of disgust. "What's with the leprechaun sized shot glasses?"

"They were the only ones that I could find," Quinn replied shortly.

The Latina arched her eyebrow at the blonde. "Right, well Berry since this is your first time why don't you get us started." Santana reached for the bottle and quickly filled each of the glasses.

"Oh, that's very nice of you Santana." Rachel creased her brow in thought, wanting to come up with an appropriate question and get the game off to a good start. She supposed that the goal was to make all of the other players drunk, while staying relatively sober. Sending a silent apology to her girlfriend she quickly came up with her first question.

"I have never sung off key." Rachel smiled proudly. Santana quickly slammed her drink and motioned for Brittany to do the same. Stacy, Sarah and Allison looked confused.

"Um...how do you know if you have sung off key or not?" Sarah asked uncertainly.

"Well if you..." Rachel started to explain only to be cut off by Santana.

"Trust me, just drink," the Latina urged. The other three Cheerios looked at one another before shrugging their shoulders and downing the fiery liquid. Sarah and Stacy seemed to swallow the shot with little difficulty but Allison went into a coughing fit.

Rachel noticed that Quinn was still holding her shot, untouched. "Why aren't you drinking?"

Quinn looked at Rachel, confused. "Because this question doesn't apply to me," Quinn responded with a smile.

"Yes it does. You were flat during our performance of Proud Mary." Rachel felt bad that her girlfriend would have to drink, something she knew she didn't enjoy, but rules were rules.

"I was not flat during that song," Quinn argued indignantly.

"You most certainly were. I distinctly remember that during the second bridge..."

"It was a chorus number! There is no way you could have possibly picked up my voice among all the others _and_ determined that it was flat."

"Quinn I assure you, I have exceptional auditory acuity. I am sorry that this upsets you so much, but you were in fact flat. My ears do not lie," Rachel stubbornly insisted. "Perhaps now you will finally take me up on my offer to coach you after school. With a little time and effort I'm confident that we can correct the flaws in your singing voice."

"Well, have you ever considered that maybe your ears aren't as..."

"Oh for the love of God!" Santana cried, interrupting Quinn's rebuttal. "Just shut up and drink, you know you will never convince her that she is wrong. At this rate I will never get drunk."

Quinn looked like she wanted to argue, but just glared at the Latina instead. "Fine." She quickly downed the shot with only a small grimace. "Happy?" she asked sweetly.

"Ecstatic. Ok let's keep this moving. Stacy?"

The cheerleader mulled the question over briefly. "I have never made a MySpace video." Rachel felt all eyes turn to her.

"Bottoms up Berry!" Santana laughed.

Rachel looked at the small glass in front of her uncertainly. She had only ever had the occasional small glass of wine at holidays. She felt Quinn's hand rub her back softly in reassuring circles, her irritation with the brunette from moments before forgotten. Bracing herself she hesitantly picked it up and slowly brought it towards her lips.

"Shoot, don't sip," Quinn advised quietly. Rachel nodded her understanding before tilting her head back and quickly downing the liquid.

Rachel wheezed out a cough as she clutched at her burning chest. The liquid burned a fiery trail from her mouth, filling her entire chest with a burning sensation until it came to rest low in her belly. She licked her lips rapidly, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. "That is absolutely disgusting!" Rachel cried. "Why would you willingly imbibe that foul spirit?"

Santana laughed at the floundering diva. "You'll see soon enough, the first shot is always the worst, it gets better as you go along."

Rachel sent the brunette cheerleader a look of disbelief. "There is no way I will drink another one of those shots," Rachel stated adamantly, crossing her arms across her chest.

Santana quirked one of her eyebrows up in challenge. "Oh really?"

Rachel felt Quinn shift beside her and the blonde moved her hand from the small of her back up to the nape of her neck. Her skin broke out in goose bumps despite the heat when the blonde began to lightly scratch the back of her neck in an unconscious show of affection.

"Santana..." Quinn began warningly.

"Oh don't get your spankies in a twist Fabray, this is all in good fun. We're all friends here right?" Quinn pursed her lips together, clearly not buying the explanation, but didn't argue. "Ok, then." Santana filled Rachel's glass. "Sarah, you're up."

"I have never...been slushied." Sarah supplied the question quickly, apparently taking advantage of the brief delay to formulate her question. Rachel eyed her shot glass balefully. Her earlier sense of dread was starting to return. The other girls had clearly decided that it was get Rachel drunk night. She shot a nervous glance at her girlfriend, the blonde's tight smile and clenched jaw, betraying her annoyance at her friends. Confident that Quinn wouldn't let anything too terrible happen, she reached for the shot and quickly shot it back.

While it still burned like hell, Santana was right in that it wasn't nearly as horrible as the first. Delicately wiping her mouth on the back of her hand she placed her glass back on the table. Santana wasted no time in re-filling it. "I'm impressed Berry, I didn't think you had it in you." Santana looked to the newest member of the Cheerios. "I think you're up Allison."

Allison looked around the group nervously. Quinn leaned forward so that Santana could refill her shot glass as well, and she turned her head to look the other girl directly in the eyes. Rachel assumed that Quinn was in full head bitch mode because she saw the quiet girl's face pale, and she shrank back in her seat.

"Umm..." Allison looked around again, clearly seeking reassurance from her friends. When no help was forthcoming she reluctantly stumbled out her question. "I've never received an "F" in school." To no one's great surprise Brittany quickly downed her shot. Quinn smiled at Allison and the girl let out an audible sigh of relief that she had managed to not anger the head Cheerio. Quinn's good humor was abruptly cut short when she noticed Rachel down her third shot of the evening from the corner of her eye.

Although the burning sensation had not receded as the liquid pushed passed her lips, Rachel found it was much more tolerable as it was accompanied by a mellower warm glow filling her chest. Santana was right; this wasn't so bad after all. Grinning happily she looked at her annoyed girlfriend.

"What have you ever failed?" Quinn asked, clearly surprised.

"Um...gym," she answered a bit sheepishly.

"Gym! How does someone fail gym?" Quinn questioned in disbelief. Rachel noticed that Allison was fidgeting nervously in her seat, probably afraid that Quinn was going to go after her next.

"They wanted me to play dodge ball and I refused. I tried to explain to them that the risk of a broken nose was far too great for me to risk, but the evolutionary throwbacks that call themselves physical education teachers refused to listen to reason and failed me instead." Rachel sat back and crossed her arms in agitation. "It's the only blemish on my otherwise perfect academic record."

Quinn shook her head at the revelation. "Only you could manage to fail the one class where all you have to do is show up and participate."

"Quinn, it is not a joking matter. The chances that I would be the number one target of every dodge ball in that gymnasium are almost 100 percent. A broken nose could deviate my septum, irrevocably altering my singing voice." Rachel huffed, annoyed that her girlfriend wasn't taking the threat to her voice seriously.

Santana sighed heavily in frustration. "Will you two please stop bickering like an old married couple? Christ I thought that getting Berry drunk would tone down the lecturing monologues but I guess not." Quinn glared at her friend but Santana met her gaze unflinchingly. She turned to the blonde sitting beside her. "You're up Brit, make it good, and remember what I told you?"

Brittany looked at the dark-haired Cheerio with a blank expression. "That you don't like it when I us teeth?"

"Uh, no, not that the other thing." Santana leaned in to whisper something into the blonde's ear.

"Hey!" Quinn objected loudly. "No coaching." Santana leaned back and smirked at the fuming blonde. Rachel reached over and clumsily patted her girlfriend on the leg, to reassure her that she didn't mind. She was actually starting to rather like the shots, they gave her a pleasant floating sensation, almost as good as the feeling she got from performing on stage.

"I've never kissed Quinn." Rachel happily swallowed her fourth shot. Her happiness was short lived when she saw Santana taking a shot as well. Whipping her head around, she glared at her girlfriend.

"Is there something you have been neglecting to tell me Quinn?" Rachel accused. Quinn shot daggers at the brunette Cheerio with her eyes before trying to placate the agitated diva.

"It's not what you think," Quinn insisted.

Rachel rolled her eyes in disbelief. "That's what you come up with? 'It's not what it looks like', possibly the most cliché response imaginable?"

"Santana is just trying to start trouble, don't pay any attention to her."

Rachel turned her attention to the other brunette. "So am I to understand that you did not in fact kiss Quinn?"

Santana crossed her arms across her chest, kicked her feet up onto the coffee table and smirked. "Oh I kissed her alright, and if I remember correctly she wasn't exactly complaining."

Rachel flushed red, a combination of alcohol and anger. "When did this...this un-holy union occur?" She whipped her gaze back to Quinn. "Have you been cheating on me?"

Quinn sighed. "I have not been cheating on you." Another glare at Santana. "This happened ages ago, we were at a party, we got a little drunk, and then decided to play Truth or Dare. No big deal."

"No big deal? This is a very big deal Quinn. You have made out with your best friends, someone who you spend a great deal of time with. How do I know these suppressed desires won't flare up in a moment of uncontrolled passion?"

"Damn Berry, only you could continue to lecture as though you were reading out of a thesaurus after slamming back four vodka shots," Santana broke in, sounding a little impressed despite herself.

"Shut up." Quinn ordered. "First of all we did not _make out_ it was one kiss."

"Actually it was more like…"

"Shut. Up." Quinn reached out and put her hand on Rachel's shoulder, who quickly shrugged away from the touch. Quinn sighed, "Secondly I do _not_ have any suppressed desires..."

"Are you sure? Cuz I mean I know I'm smoking hot, I wouldn't really blame you."

Quinn glared at her soon to be ex-friend, before turning back to the pouting singer. She leaned over so she could whisper directly into the smaller girl's ear. The hot wash of the blonde's breath over the sensitive skin of her ear caused Rachel to shiver despite her best efforts to stay detached. "Trust me; you are a far better kisser than Santana. Once was _more _then enough."

Rachel turned to her Quinn with a happy grin, her anger momentarily forgotten. "Really?"

Quinn pulled back with a smile. "Really," she confirmed.

Rachel sent a smug look towards Santana, causing her to frown and drop her feet to the floor.

"What did you say to her to make her that happy?" Santana questioned, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at the now placid brunette.

"Only the truth," Quinn looked around at the group. Brittany seemed to be a bit perturbed by the recent exchange, something Santana missed entirely as she looked suspiciously at the serenely smiling petite brunette. Stacy and Sarah were pretending not to notice the drama unfolding and were whispering softly to each other, while Allison fidgeted uncomfortably beside them. "I think this game has run its course. We should find something else to do," Quinn declared.

"What!" cried the Latina. "We have barely gotten started, I don't even have a buzz."

"You should have thought of that before you decided to target Rachel." Quinn looked at the other girl flatly.

Santana tried to adopt a look of innocence. "It's not my fault Sister Mary Sings-A-Lot can't hold her liquor," she defended stubbornly. "Besides, that had to be the tamest game of I Never ever played, it's almost impossible to think of something that the doe eyed innocent _has_ done."

"I'm not innocent!" Rachel huffed. "Just because I haven't slept with half the school, doesn't mean I haven't done _anything."  
__  
_Rachel startled when the Latina suddenly jumped up and tried to lunge across the table at her, only to be stopped by Brittany grabbing the back of her shirt. "Did you just call me a slut!"

"Well if the string of discarded conquests fit..."

"That's it. I am so kicking your ass you little garden gnome." Santana struggled to get free of Brittany's freakishly strong grasp.

"Enough!" Quinn cried, fed up with the back and forth. "Santana chill out, you only have yourself to blame for getting her drunk in the first place."

Stacy, Sarah and Allison sat rooted in their seats, mute and unmoving. They were having a hard time processing that someone, even a drunk someone, had the balls to call Santana a slut. To her face.

Quinn reached over and ran her hand over the back of Rachel's hair. "Rachel don't call Santana a slut, I won't always be around to prevent her from killing you. Now there has to be something else we can do."

"Well since I barely got to take a sip, I vote for Truth or Dare." Santana smirked at Rachel, knowing the suggestion would set the smaller girl off. Rachel was set to retort but Quinn's hand tightening on her shoulder kept her quiet.

"I hardly think that you need the excuse of a game to get you to drink San. Any other suggestions?"

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the girls all found themselves lounging the pool. The movie idea had been a bust when no one could even come close to agreeing. Rachel, not surprisingly, had wanted to watch anything with Barbara, Brittany had voted for Howard the Duck, and Santana had insisted that if she was going to refrain from killing Berry she should at least be able to fantasize about it, and had lobbied for Hostel. Since by that point they had all been practically melting, they had quickly agreed to the pool when Sarah and Stacy had suggested it.

The five Cheerios had camped out on the shallow end and were busy passing the now half-empty bottle of vodka around. Rachel had wanted to join them, but Quinn had nixed that idea, and they had grabbed a couple of the pool floats, at Quinn's insistence, and were slowly drifting away from the group.

While Rachel wouldn't have minded a bit more of the vodka, the promise of some relative alone time with a bikini clad Quinn was enough to persuade her to abandon that plan.

"What is this called again Quinn?" Rachel asked, batting at the end of her pool float. Quinn had tucked it under her arms, so that her chest was held out of the water, but the ends curled up and were distracting her.

"It's a fun noodle Rach, so you can float."

"I know how to swim," Rachel insisted, insulted that Quinn thought she needed a piece of foam to keep her afloat. "My dad's had me in swim lessons when I was two. I am an exceptional swimmer."

"I know you are baby, but how about you just humor me and leave it in place." Quinn glanced left at her girlfriend as they slowly paddled towards the far end of the pool. "That way we won't have to concentrate on staying afloat, and can make better use of our hands." Quinn's voice took on a suggestive edge, and Rachel felt a shiver throughout her body.

Reaching the far end of the pool, Quinn spun Rachel so that her back was against the side of the pool, and slid herself in front of the smaller girl.

"So, now that you have me all to yourself, what are your plans?" Rachel asked coyly, reaching out and trying to run her right hand through Quinn's hair. Instead of making contact with the golden locks, she found herself spitting out a mouthful of water when she slid beneath the surface of the water. She felt a hand grasp her under one arm and pull her above the water.

"What happened?" she spluttered, using her free hand to wipe the water out of her eyes.

"You slipped off your fun noodle and went under," Quinn replied drily as she brushed her girlfriend's tangled hair back and out of her eyes. Treading water, she quickly re-situated Rachel on her fun noodle. "I don't want to have to fish you off the bottom of the pool. Now hold onto your noodle."

Rachel snickered, earning an eye roll from Quinn. Apparently a little alcohol lowered her emotional maturity to that of a twelve-year-old male.

"I told you, I am an exceptional swimmer Quinn," Rachel staunchly insisted.

"Mm hmm, and if you were sober I would agree with you. But you just belted back four shots, so you may not quite be in control of all your impressive abilities at the moment," Quinn teased.

Rachel harrumphed at the comment, but given the fact that the sky was kind of spinning, just a tad, she felt it best not to argue. Plus there were far better things she could be doing with her time.

"I really like your bathing suit," Rachel quipped, sending the blonde her best smoldering look. Quinn chocked back a laugh.

"Do you now? Well I was thinking of you when I bought it, I just wasn't sure if I could pull it off yet," Quinn replied, glancing down at her body self-consciously.

Rachel looked at her girlfriend in disbelief. "One. You had better have been thinking of me when you bought it." She was tempted to raise her finger in the air for emphasis, but after her earlier...mishap, she decided that her hands might be better served if they remained firmly attached to her noodle. _Snicker. _"Two. Are you insane? If you can't pull off that swim suit, who could?"

Quinn flushed slightly at the compliment and averted her eyes. "It's just that my body isn't the same, not since..."

Rachel sent the blonde a sympathetic look and scooted herself closer until she was able to rest her forehead against Quinn's. "Your body is fine," the brunette insisted quietly. "You have been working like a crazy woman all summer to get back in shape." Rachel waggled her brows and sent the cheerleader a small leer. "And believe me when I say you have succeeded. In spades."

"You're not just saying that?" Quinn questioned uncertainly.

"You _are _insane," Rachel teased. "But if you think you need to work out more, I will be happy to think up some activities that are sure to put your through a strenuous cardiovascular workout."

Quinn raised her brows at Rachel's suggestive tone. "Why thank you, such a selfless offer." The blonde ran her hands down Rachel's arms, trailing her fingers teasingly over the tanned skin. She tugged on the singer's hands, pulling her body forward until their chests bumped together. She leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. "Thank you," she murmured softly, wrapping her arms around Rachel's back.

Rachel curved her lips in a small smile. "You're noodle's poking me."

Quinn snorted, "Way to ruin a moment Rach. I think drunk Rachel is a little too much like Santana for my peace of mind."

Reminded of the other brunette, Rachel tilted her head sideways so that she could see past Quinn's head. The Latina was lounging on the pool steps, apparently holding court and taking a healthy swallow from her bottle of vodka. As if sensing the eyes on her, her gaze shifted towards the far end of the pool. The lights were dim at this end of the pool, so Rachel doubted that she could see much. Santana just tilted her head and smirked in their general direction. Rachel felt a low growl rumble out of her chest.

Quinn pulled back to gaze at her girlfriend. "Did you just growl?"

"I don't trust her." Rachel completely ignored the blonde's question. Quinn rolled her eyes, a motion lost on Rachel, who was still starring at the coffee skinned Cheerio.

"You're not seriously worried about Santana are you?" Quinn asked in exasperation. "I mean if I wanted her, or if she wanted me, don't you think it would have happened by now?"

Rachel ripped her gaze away from Santana to stare at the blonde in outrage. "Quinn! That is certainly not a reassuring thought."

"Well how about you stop thinking about Santana and concentrate on me instead." Quinn leaned forward and placed a kiss on Rachel's mouth, sucking softly on the diva's lower lip.

Rachel hummed happily at the contact. "I think that can be arranged." Quinn pushed forward, pinning Rachel against the side of the pool. The blonde leaned in to deepen the kiss, running her tongue lightly along the seam of Rachel's lips, silently asking for entrance.

Rachel groaned in frustration, causing Quinn to pull back, surprised at the reaction. "Did I do something wrong?"

Rachel shook her head. "I want to touch you. But this stupid noodle keeps getting in my way," Rachel whined.

"I think we can fix that," Quinn answered with a grin. Removing her hands from where they rested on the brunette's shoulders Quinn grasped the edge of the pull, laying her forearms flush against the side of the pool, effectively caging Rachel in. "Wrap your legs around my waist."

Rachel was quick to comply with the order. Once her legs were firmly locked in place, Quinn removed one hand from the wall and quickly dispatched with the noodles. Her hands finally free to roam as they please, Rachel wasted no time running them down the blonde's sides, bringing them to rest on her hips. She leaned forward, attaching her lips to the soft skin under Quinn's jaw, sucking softly.

Quinn shivered at the contact, placing her hand back on the wall to make sure that she didn't allow them both to drown. Rachel continued to rain kisses along the blonde's neck, eager to make up for all the time they had been denied this contact earlier. Not content to simply be on the receiving end, Quinn pulled back so she could capture the singer's lips with her own.

This time when she ran her tongue along Rachel's lips, access was readily granted. Rachel slowly stroked her hands up the blonde's back feeling goose bumps break out. She pulled back, breaking the kiss.

"Cold baby?" she teased.

Quinn crinkled her brow, annoyed at the break. "Oh, simply freezing. Maybe I can get Santana to warm me up." When Rachel opened her mouth to offer and angry retort, Quinn leaned in and quickly recaptured the diva's mouth. Rachel's protest was quickly forgotten.

Running her hands back down the length of the blonde's back, Rachel once again rested them on her hips. She let her fingers drift around to the center of the blonde's back, and lightly toyed with the elastic band of Quinn's bikini bottoms, before she slid her hands under the snug fabric to cup the blonde's ass.

Quinn groaned into her mouth when Rachel pulled her forward and arched her back, lightly grinding her center into the blonde's stomach. Quinn pulled back.

"Rachel we can't do this here," she panted, her breath a hot pant against the brunette's skin. Rachel ignored her protest and leaned forward to gently suck on the blonde's ear lobe. Quinn groaned, but pulled back once more.

"Seriously Rach, this isn't the place." Rachel reluctantly released the tempting bit of flesh and pouted.

"I thought you said you didn't want to hide our relationship?"

"I don't," Quinn insisted. "But there's not hiding, and there's giving everyone else in the pool a free show." Quinn leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on the brunette's pouting lips. "Don't pout baby, we will have plenty of time tomorrow."

Rachel scowled at the blonde, squeezing the hands that she still had on her ass. "We could have had plenty of time today as well if you did not have this sleepover."

"Are you not having a good time?' Quinn questioned, concerned.

Rachel thought about lying, but she had promised to always be honest. "It's actually not as horrible as I was expecting," she reluctantly conceded.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Well gee that's a relief. But you honestly aren't having a bad time?"

Rachel leaned back in to string kisses along the blonde's throat. "Well I was just starting to have a really good time, but some annoying cheerleader interrupted." As if on cue, Santana's voice rang out from the other side of the pool.

"Hey Fabray, how about you wrench yourself away from the Littlest Mermaid and come here for a second." Rachel huffed out her breath, not pleased at the intrusion. Quinn sighed and pulled back.

"C'mon, let's go see what she wants. She won't leave us alone until we humor her."

Rachel sighed in defeat. "Fine. It's not like I was going to get anywhere anyway."

"Rachel!" Quinn exclaimed, a little shocked at her normally much more demure girlfriend's comment.

"What?"

Quinn just shook her head, a small grin in place at the pouting diva. Horny, frustrated Rachel was cute. "Since our noodles seem to have drifted away, how about I give you a ride back to the shallow end?"

"I already told you I can swim Quinn. Besides, I barely feel dizzy anymore."

"Oh that's a relief," Quinn responded sarcastically. "Grab on." Rachel debated arguing further, but really the thought of being pressed flush against the blonde's back wasn't exactly something she wanted to talk her way out of. Rachel loosened her hold, allowing Quinn to turn around. Wrapping her arms around the blonde's neck, she allowed herself to be ferried back towards the group of lounging Cheerios.

Seeing them approach Santana grimaced slightly at the cute display. "Well if it isn't Flipper and her pet guppy. You guys are simply nauseating you know that right?"

"Quinn's a gay shark," Brittany supplied, the other three Cheerios looked at her oddly, but Santana just smiled at her indulgently.

"She sure is B."

Rachel released her hold from around Quinn's neck, no longer needing to hold on now that she was back in the shallow end of the pool and could plant her feet. Quinn reached out and grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers, and preventing her from drifting too far. Rachel felt a warm glow bloom in her chest, knowing that the blonde was reassuring her that she was going to keep her promise to not hide their relationship.

"You bellowed, San?"

"Yeah, the rest of us are starving and we certainly don't want any part of what you have been nibbling on."

Quinn rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored her friend's comment. "What did everyone want?"

"We were kinda craving pizza. Unfortunately no place delivers this far out."

"So someone needs to go out on a food run." Quinn eyed the now almost completely empty bottle of vodka. "And I guess that means me." Santana nodded in agreement. Quinn sighed, not really wanting to get out of the pool. "Fine. What toppings did you want?"

The group quickly offered up their topping choices and Quinn moved to get out of the pool to go call in their order. When Rachel moved to follow her the blonde motioned for her to stay in the water.

"Don't you want me to come?" Rachel questioned.

"It's not that, but it's still hot as hell, and there's no need for us both to go through the hassle of getting dressed. Just stay in the water where it's comfortable at least. I will be back before you know it." Rachel eyed the group of giggling cheerleaders a bit uncertainly, but concluded that perhaps her earlier worries about them had been unfounded. With the exception of a few potentially double edged comments, they really hadn't been overtly malicious. Well, with the exception of Santana, but then she was like that all the time and with everyone.

Rachel smiled reassuringly at Quinn. "Hurry back."

Quinn leaned in for a quick kiss. "You won't even know I was gone," she promised. Standing up from the water, she rang the water from her hair before grabbing a towel and heading into the house. Rachel watched her go, appreciating the cocky sway of the blonde's hips.

A few minutes later Quinn reappeared on the patio and called for Santana to come over. The Latina grumbled but eventually hauled herself out of the water and sauntered over to the blonde. They were out of hearing range, but Rachel could see that Quinn appeared to be telling her something that she felt was important. Santana just looked bored and would occasionally roll her eyes, but eventually just nodded her head, apparently agreeing to whatever the blonde was asking.

Santana walked back over to the five remaining girls in the pool. "Ok Berry, now that Mom is gone, lets really get this party started." Rachel was torn between a feeling of vindication that people _did_ in fact still use that saying and dread at the predatory look in the Latina's dark eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

* * *

Rachel swallowed nervously, reflecting that perhaps implying Santana, and to some extent Brittany, were somewhat less than discerning when it came to their choice in sexual partners wasn't one of her more well thought out actions. Damn Quinn for leaving her alone.

The former head Cheerio continued to advance toward the pool, her dark eyes promising menace. Rachel opened her mouth to plead her case, but was halted when Santana suddenly laughed.

"Oh my god Berry, you should see your face right now!" Reaching the pool, she stopped by the edge and glanced down into the water. "I'm not sure I even want to get back in the water, you look like you might have pissed yourself." The other cheerleaders let out disgusted shrieks and began to edge away from the now blushing Rachel.

"I can assure you that I have not relieved myself in the pool." Rachel looked at the four girls in the pool, all still keeping a safe distance.

Santana laughed and lowered herself into the water. Her willingness to enter the potentially soiled water provided the other girls with enough evidence that she must have been joking, they began to edge closer.

Rachel glowered, something that had no effect on the unrepentant brunette. "Oh don't give me that look. Quinn gets all bent out of shape when I try to have a little fun, so I have to take my chances when they arise. Good to know I haven't lost the ability to strike fear with just a look though."

"I wasn't afraid," Rachel stubbornly insisted.

Santana remained unconvinced. "Uh huh, right, that's probably why you looked like I was about to strip you naked and feed you to the wolves."

"Quinn wouldn't be happy if you fed Rachel to wolves San." Brittany floated over until she was once again resting against the prickly cheerleader; she laid her head on Santana's shoulder with a happy sigh. Rachel noticed that the blonde's eyes were even more glazed over than usual and figured the now almost empty bottle of vodka was to blame.

"Yeah, you're right B, I'm sure Quinn would much rather eat Berry herself."

"Must you be so crass, Santana?" Rachel questioned with a huff, crossing her arms across her chest, if she had been on dry ground she would have thrown in a foot stomp for added emphasis. While the Latina had managed to curb her more pointed barbs, she had replaced them with sexual innuendos instead. Rachel wasn't sure if she preferred the insults instead.

"Oh don't be such a prude."

"Just because I don't find your _puerile_ statements amusing doesn't mean that I'm a prude."

"Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…it's a duck," Santana stated flippantly.

Brittany popped her head up and looked around excitedly. "Where?"

Santana sighed, patting the blonde's hand consolingly. "Nowhere Brit, it's just a figure of speech." The blonde slumped in disappointment.

"Nice going Santana," Rachel quipped. Santana scowled at the petite brunette.

"Shut it." The Latina turned to the still pouting blonde. "I'll make it up to you, what do you want?"

The blonde immediately perked back up and smiled at her friend. "Ice cream!" Santana groaned quietly, not knowing if Quinn had any in the freezer; she didn't want to let the blonde down twice in such a short span. She smiled regardless, leaning forward slightly before catching herself and pulling back.

"Ice cream, huh? Let me just go check to make sure Quinn has some in the freezer, if not I'm sure you can think of some other way I can make it up to you." Santana stood from the water and smiled suggestively at Brittany, oblivious to all the eyes watching her.

Barely two minutes after Santana had exited the pool her voice could be heard calling from inside the house. "Hey B? Can you come in here and give me a hand with something?" Brittany started to rise and follow the request before pausing and looking at Rachel for confirmation that she was okay with her going. Rachel felt a slight qualm at the prospect of being left alone with the three remaining Cheerios, but dismissed it as paranoia. They had been chatting quite amiably since Santana's departure. Rachel gave the blonde dancer a barely perceptible nod accompanied by a small smile of reassurance. She was Rachel Berry, if she was going to one day conquer Broadway, she should certainly be able to spend a few minutes alone with some cheerleaders.

"God they are so obvious," Sarah remarked, rolling her eyes at the other girls after Brittany entered the house.

"Obvious about what?" Rachel asked. Of course she knew. Everyone knew. She was willing to play dumb however if it meant not being the one responsible for spilling Santana and Brittany's open secret. While she wouldn't admit it out loud, Santana still scared her.

"Oh c'mon Rachel, I thought for sure you would know," Stacy answered. "I figured those two must send your gaydar pinging off the charts."

"Seriously, I don't know who Santana thinks she's fooling. Every party, like clockwork, she will manage to drag Brittany off somewhere, and they will come back 15-20 minutes later, sweaty and flushed," Sarah smiled at Rachel. "I figured that you would have picked up on that, what with you and Quinn hanging out with them all the time."

"Or maybe they were just too busy themselves to notice," Stacy chimed in, with a smile. Rachel eyed the girl, trying to sense if there was any malice in the statement, but she honestly couldn't detect any.

"Well we really don't hang out with Santana and Brittany all that much," Rachel deflected, not wanting to get into how physical she and Quinn had become, or not become, since they had started dating. She may not be able to sense any nefarious intent with the other girls at the moment, but she wasn't going to talk about something that personal with them either.

"Well I can certainly understand that." Sarah smiled at her sympathetically. "Santana can be a bit hard to be around sometimes."

"That's certainly one way of looking at it," Stacy snorted.

Rachel just blinked at the other girl, surprised that she would be willing to speak openly against her former captain, someone that would happily make her life a living hell if she felt insulted.

"Santana is...complicated." Rachel was surprised to find herself defending the other brunette.

"I have to say I'm surprised that you would speak up for her," Sarah replied, apparently also puzzled by Rachel's defense.

"Don't misunderstand. If given the choice between hanging out with Santana or not, I am most often going to choose the latter. I just think that people tend to only judge the surface, and there is much more to her then that." Rachel figured that anyone that defended her sometimes daft friend, with the tenacity of a rabid dog, couldn't be all bad. Even if she had never been the recipient of that loyalty, it was clear that the Latina was capable of it.

"Well you are a better person than I am Rachel. If someone had spent years tormenting me there is no way I would defend them, even the tiniest bit."

Rachel gave Stacy a small half smile. "I have found it better to not dwell too much on the past and instead focus on making the future something that's worth living."

"Ok." Sarah shook her head with a laugh. "This is all getting way too deep for me. This is supposed to be a fun sleepover, not a U.N. summit meeting where we figure out how to all live in peace."

Rachel nodded her head in agreement, more than eager to abandon this particular line of conversation. While she did try to look past how Quinn and her friends had treated her, it was much easier to accomplish when she wasn't being constantly reminded of it. "I couldn't agree more, it is far too nice an evening for us to become maudlin and introspective."

"Well put, this is a night to be wild and free," Sarah agreed with a nod at Rachel. "You know the one thing that is extremely freeing?" Sarah asked. Rachel shook her head. "Skinny dipping." With a grin Sarah stood up and promptly shed her bikini top, flinging it off.

Rachel sat in slight shock, hearing the other girl's top land in the water with a wet slap. "Oh...um...well," Rachel found herself in a rather unique situation; at a complete loss for words. She darted her eyes all around, not wanting to be caught staring at the now bare chested girl. She really wasn't sure what the proper social protocol was in a situation such as this. On the one hand, Sarah had stripped down, so logic would dictate that she probably didn't care if she was seen naked. On the other, Rachel was currently engaged in a lesbian relationship, so maybe it would freak the other girl out of she noticed her looking. Of course if that were the case, she probably wouldn't have stripped down in the first place. Before she could decide on an appropriate course of action, she saw the bikini bottoms go sailing past and land on the pool deck with a plop.

Stacy laughed, while shedding her own swim suit. "Breathe Rachel, you look like you're about to pass out." Rachel blinked at the other girl, but did take her advice and draw in a much needed breath. "Have you never been skinny dipping?"

"As a matter of fact, I haven't," Rachel replied, finally deciding that eye contact was probably the safest focal point.

"Oh, well you don't know what you're missing. C'mon now, don't be shy," Stacy coaxed, with a grin. The cheerleader directed her gaze to the other still clothed person in the pool. "You too Allison, we're all girls here."

Rachel watched as the other girl flushed in embarrassment, and felt a deep sense of camaraderie with the shy cheerleader. It wasn't that Rachel was ashamed of her body; she put far too much time into her exercise regime for that. She had just never been naked in front of anyone before.

Allison looked at her squad mates with pleading eyes. "I'm not really sure about this guys; can't I just keep my suit on?"

Stacy and Sarah looked at each other, and seemed to engage in some sort of silent committee meeting before turning to the flustered girl and saying 'Strip' in unison.

"Besides," Sarah added. "We are all going to do it, so it's no big deal. Right Rachel?" Sarah turned her attention back to the singer.

Rachel drew in a fortifying breath before nodding her head. "Right." Rachel slowly waded out into deeper waters. She may be willing to strip down in the name of girl bonding, but there was no way she was going to try to divest herself of her snug fitting one-piece above water. Once the water was deep enough so that it was lapping just above her breasts she reached up and slid the straps off of her shoulder. After a brief struggle, and almost dunking her face in the water she was finally free of the suit.

Balling the suit up in her hand she spread her arms out and began to tread water. Ok, Sarah and Stacy definitely had a point, this felt totally amazing. Still remaining covered by the water, Rachel drifted back over towards the three Cheerios. Allison must have been talked into stripping down because she was chin deep in the water, only her eyes and nose peeking above the surface.

Stacy and Sarah didn't seem to be afflicted with overly developed senses of modesty as they were floating lazily on their backs. Rachel felt herself blush slightly when she noticed that the combination of the cool water and the night air, warm though it was, had caused their nipples to harden into stiff points.

"Enjoying the view?" Rachel jumped slightly, startled by the question, and quickly jerked her gaze up to meet Stacy's eyes.

Blushing furiously she managed to stammer out, "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking. Well, I mean obviously I was looking, but not _looking_ looking."

Stacy laughed. "Relax Rachel, I was just messing with you. So what's the verdict? Or didn't you actually have the guts to strip?"

Rachel felt herself bristle slightly at the implication that she was lacking a sense of adventure. She was _not_ a prude. "I most certainly did. And you were right," Rachel conceded. "It feels fantastic, I should have done this ages ago."

"Told ya. Not that I don't trust you, but c'mon, prove it and lose the suit." Rachel realized that she was still holding her balled up bathing suit. With a slightly raised eyebrow she defiantly tossed the suit onto the pool deck to land besides Sarah's swim bottoms. Stacy nodded her head in approval. "Nice."

Rachel eyed the far end of the pool. Now that she had experienced the freedom of being in the water without the barrier of a layer of spandex, she was rather eager to get the most out of it. Stacy and Sarah seemed content to continue to float around, but Rachel had the urge to swim. She turned toward Allison, still submerged up to her nostrils, and smiled warmly.

"Did you want to swim for a bit? You might feel a little better in the deeper end, the lights aren't as bright." Not for the first time that evening Rachel wondered how Allison had found herself friends with two of the more aggressive Cheerios. From everything she had seen, Allison seemed to be a rather shy and quiet individual, not typically the type that the other two surrounded themselves with.

Allison glanced uncertainly at Stacy and Sarah, as if unsure if she had permission. When they both failed to look her way, she finally nodded and drifted closer to Rachel. "Sure. The deeper water may be good. I've never done this before."

Rachel sent the other girl another smile as she started to stroke her way towards the far wall. "Me either, but I must confess, I think I will be doing it again at the earliest opportunity." The pace Rachel set was slow, both a concession to her desire to engage the other girl in conversation, and the alcohol she had consumed. "I don't mean to be rude, but you don't really strike me as the cheerleader type. At least not the typical cheerleader at McKinley."

Allison glanced at Rachel, her expression unreadable. "Well I will say that cheering at McKinley is definitely different from what I am used to." Allison remained silent for a few moments, the two continuing to swim slowly in companionable silence, before turning to Rachel. "What about you? Isn't it a little odd to be dating the person who from all accounts has tortured you for years?"

Rachel faltered slightly in her stroke, not really anticipating that the other girl would ask such a personal, not to mention, difficult question. In her experience most people tended to ignore the unlikely nature of her and Quinn's relationship. Well except Santana, but Rachel didn't count her sarcastic barbs. Rachel paused for a moment, considering her answer. "It's definitely complicated. It wasn't easy to let go of the past hurt. Over time though, I have come to have complete faith in her."

"How can you be sure?" When Rachel looked at the other girl in surprise she continued, "I just don't know that I could ever trust someone that had been that awful to me."

Rachel nodded in understanding. "I know it makes me look like a doormat. But you would have had to know the old Quinn to appreciate the change. She really isn't the same person."

Allison bobbed her head in acknowledgment and sent Rachel a small smile. "Well I can't wait to get to know the new Quinn."

Rachel grinned at the cheerleader. "Well being on the same squad, I'm sure you will have plenty of opportunity to get to know each other better." Rachel paused for a moment, a wonderful idea occurring to her. What little she had gotten to know of Allison, she liked, and wouldn't be averse to spending more time with her. "You don't happen to sing do you?" Rachel asked excitedly. "Glee Club is always looking for new members; we struggle just to meet the minimum requirements. After winning sectionals I was sure we would have been able to grow our numbers. Of course the fact that we were completely _robbed_ at Regional's probably didn't help our cause in the slightest," Rachel ranted, having lost sight of her question entirely.

"Um Rachel?" Allison broke into her tirade before it could really gain momentum. "I don't sing, at least nothing that anyone else would want to hear."

"Oh." Rachel deflated a bit in disappointment, before perking up. "Well even so, I am sure you and Quinn will become great friends, us too for that matter." Rachel smiled happily, always excited to make a new friend after her years on the social fringe.

The two girls found themselves back in the shallow end of the pool, noticing that they were short one Cheerio, Stacy now the only other person still in the pool.

"Where's Sarah?" Rachel questioned.

"Oh she went into the house to make us some drinks. There was just enough vodka left to make a few mixers." Rachel licked her lips unconsciously, not averse to having another drink since the warm happy glow from earlier was starting to fade. Stacy turned her head and looked towards the house. "Oh there she is now."

Rachel turned her head instinctively, before blushing and quickly averting her gaze. Naked. Right. Sarah seemed unfazed by her naked state and continued to saunter towards the pool confidently. Once she reached the pool she quickly descended into the water and handed one of her two glasses to Stacy.

"Oh hey Rachel, you and Allison done with your laps?" Sarah asked, taking a sip from her own glass. Rachel nodded her head and eyed the glass in the other girl's hand. "You look thirsty, there are two more of these in the house, there was just enough to make four."

Rachel looked to Allison, only to see the other girls face blanched. Remembering her earlier shyness she figured the idea of exiting the pool was fairly daunting. She hesitated a moment herself, not entirely comfortable with the idea, but the desire to taste the frosty concoction that Sarah and created won out.

"I'll go." She made her way slowly towards the edge of the water, looking over her shoulder nervously. When she noticed that both Sarah and Stacy seemed more interested in their drinks she quickly exited the water, not wanting to draw the process out. She looked around, hoping to grab one of the towels to wrap around herself, but couldn't see them anywhere. Not wanting to ask the others where they were, and draw attention to herself, she figured it would be better to just hurry into the house and get back into the pool.

As she made her way across the pool deck towards the house a light breeze finally stirred, drying the water droplets on her skin and causing goose flesh to break out. Hurrying towards the house she opened the door and stepped inside. Not wasting any time she quickly padded through the family room and headed towards the kitchen.

She heard a noise come from upstairs, muffled and hard to discern, causing her to jerk in alarm. She decided that traipsing through your girlfriend's house stark naked wasn't as much fun as it sounded. Arriving in the kitchen she spotted the two glasses, a blender filled with the remnants of fruit and ice, and a now completely empty bottle of vodka. Grabbing both glasses by their stems she quickly turned and headed back outside, eager to get back into the pool, and the cover of the water, scant though it may be.

Reaching the door she transferred both drinks to one hand, using the other to open the door, and kept her gaze on the drinks, not wanting to unbalance the glasses and spill the contents. Stepping outside she went back to a two-handed carry and looked up. Before she could step forward she was met with an icy blast to the face.

Shocked by the sudden assault her hands went limp, sending the two glasses and their contents crashing to the ground. Before she could entirely process what had happened, another icy blast hit her full on. Her mouth, which was parted slightly in shock, managed to catch some of the substance that hit her and she was able to taste the distinct flavors of strawberry and vodka.

Finally getting the feeling back in her hands she brought them up to wipe her eyes, noting with clinical detachment that vodka had a stronger sting then corn syrup. When the blood stopped rushing in her ears the first thing she heard was the familiar shrill laughter of her tormentors.

The fruit slush was slowly sliding its way down her body, leaving a cold, sticky trail in its wake. She shook her head, as if to clear the confusion, because surely this had to be some type of surreal nightmare.

"C'mon quit stalling and do it already. Stick to the plan." Rachel heard the voice but couldn't tell if it was Sarah or Stacy. Figuring out that minor detail became of critical importance, so she concentrated on it, trying to block out everything else. Plus the words made no sense. What plan?

Before she could think to ask the question her still stinging eyes were blinded by a sudden burst of light. Even in her semi-shocked state she knew what that was. They were taking pictures. At least that cleared up the question about the plan. That just left one question. Luckily it was a short one.

"Why?" She wanted to lash out at them, but all that managed to escape was a timid query. Her question only elicited more laughter.

"Why not Berry? Or should I say Treasure Trail. I can definitely see where you picked up that nickname," Stacy responded cruelly, her laughter cutting through Rachel's haze. In a belated attempt to gain some modesty Rachel tried to cover herself as best as she could with her hands.

"Or Stubbles. Christ didn't your mother ever teach you how to shave?" Sarah made an expression of exaggerated regret. "Oh that's right. You don't actually have a mom, just those two fags for parents."

Rachel knew she should be fighting back, normally any slanderous remarks made against her dads was enough to send her into a lecture on tolerance, but the shock was still holding her immobile. Shock and a crushing sense of humiliation. She should have known better than to let her guard down even for a second around the Cheerios, but Quinn had assured her that it would be okay.

Quinn. Latching onto the thought of her girlfriend, Rachel managed to marshal some defiance and strike back. "You're going to regret doing this. Quinn is not going to be pleased when she returns home to find out that you have slushied her girlfriend." Her voice wasn't as sure and confident as she would have liked, but at least she had managed to get the statement out without faltering.

Unfortunately the claim only seemed to garner even more laughter from the two cheerleaders. "Her girlfriend? You really just don't get it do you Man-hands?" Sarah asked sarcastically. "Do you seriously think that Quinn _fucking_ Fabray would ever really date you? You didn't find it at all odd, that the former head cheerleader, president of the celibacy club, and oh so very straight girl was suddenly into you? Are you really _that_ out of touch with reality?"

Rachel's mind reeled as she struggled to process the words. Her first gut reaction was one of denial. Surely Quinn, sweet, gentle, caring, _loving, _Quinn couldn't have been faking her affections all summer. Following quickly on the heels of denial was doubt. Surely Quinn, mean, biting, taunting, tormentor Quinn, couldn't have actually done such a drastic 180 degree turn. Her brow creased and she shook her head not wanting to allow them to see her doubts.

"She..lo...cares about me," Rachel insisted weakly. She wanted to claim that Quinn loved her but Quinn had never expressed anything of the sort. Another tendril of doubt crept in and took root.

"God you really _are_ that delusional." Stacy shook her head at the naked brunette sadly. For the first time Rachel noted that the others had re-donned their swim wear, leaving her the only one exposed. "Have you stopped to consider how very convenient this whole situation is?"

Rachel shook her head negatively, not understanding, and not wanting to understand, what point the other girl was trying to illustrate.

"Out of the blue she befriends you, someone she had previously despised." Rachel's mind flashed back to that day in the park when she had bumped into Quinn jogging, the blonde running herself into the ground to get back into her pre-baby shape. Rachel had offered to be her workout partner, partly to ensure that the blonde didn't over exert herself, and partly so that she would have someone to talk to. While they had formed an odd sort of bond after Quinn gave Beth up for adoption, Rachel hadn't really considered them friends until shortly after that day in the park.

"Then, this former enemy, is suddenly not just friendly, but wants to date you, having never given any previous hint of being gay." Rachel wanted to refute the words but found that she couldn't. She bit her lip, trying to quell the tears that she could feel beginning to build. She refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her break apart.

"Then your new 'girlfriend'..." Sarah bracketed the word with air quotes, "…invites you to a sleep over where she conveniently leaves you alone with some of your biggest tormentors. Your only possible ally, though admittedly not a very bright one, is also conveniently taken out of the equation." Sarah smirked at Rachel, crossing her arms across her chest. "Now tell me, does that sound like someone who cares about you, or someone that was setting up an elaborate prank?"

Rachel felt a surge of bile in the back of her throat, and prayed that she would be spared the added humiliation of emptying the contents of her stomach. Her mind rebelled at the thought that there was any truth to the cheerleader's words but the seed of doubt had already been planted.

It made perfect sense when one actually stopped to think about it. The heady excitement of actually having the attention of someone like Quinn had blinded her to the obvious. She had trusted so blindly, and wanted to believe so badly, that she had never questioned Quinn's motives. Her earlier humiliation was nothing compared to the suffocating feeling of shame that enveloped her as she realized what a pathetically easy target she had been.

Rachel darted her eyes behind the trio in front of her hoping she could spot her discarded clothes, she was temporarily startled by the presence of Allison, having almost forgotten the other girl was there at all. She now saw the quiet cheerleader's questions from earlier in a much different light; she hadn't been prying, she'd been trying to warn her. Sarah and Stacy saw her looking and smirked.

"Yeah it is about time that you get going. Poor Quinn has more than paid for her past transgressions by having to pretend to enjoy kissing you." Sarah shuddered in revulsion. "The least we can do is make sure you aren't here to bring up any unpleasant memories when she gets back." Sarah turned to look at Allison. "Did you send it out?"

Rachel jerked her gaze to Allison, who met her eyes briefly before dropping them to look at her phone. "Send? Send what?" Rachel asked, slightly panicked, because she had a sinking feeling she knew exactly to what they were referring.

"Why the pictures, of course," Sarah answered sweetly. "Surely you didn't think we were just taking them for our own amusement. They are going to be sent to the full student body." Sarah smiled widely at Rachel, clearly relishing the horror stricken look on the singer's face, before turning her attention to Allison. "Well? Are they sent? I really don't want to have to look at her any longer then needed."

Rachel gazed at Allison, silently pleading with her. Allison lifted her gaze briefly, making the barest eye contact with Rachel before turning her attention to Sarah. "Yeah, I sent it," the girl responded softly.

"Splendid. Looks like you're free to go Berry."

"My clothes?" Surely they didn't expect her to walk home naked.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be needing those, it's a warm night." Stacy responded with a smirk. Rachel looked at the other girl in disbelief. She wasn't going to waste time arguing, she would simply go into the house and grab something on her way out. Turning around she reached for the door handle, only to feel a hand clamp onto her shoulder and spin her around.

"Not through the house. We wouldn't want you dripping that mess all over Quinn's house now would we?" Sarah nodded her head toward the side gate. "You can leave through the back." Rachel hesitated, debating defying the command, but she knew if it came down to it the three of them could over power her. Plus her control was rapidly fraying, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to hold in her tears for much longer.

Stepping forward she bit back a gasp when she stepped down on the broken shards of the glasses. Wincing she limped past the smirking Cheerios, intend only on getting home. Passing through the gate she quickened her pace, the first tear making its way down her cheek.

She hunched over, trying to conceal as much of her body as possible as she rounded the side of the house, the various street lamps casting far too much light for her comfort. She cursed herself for not bringing her car, but Quinn only lived a few blocks away, and it had been a nice night for a walk. She quickly ran through the possible routes back to her house before deciding on cutting through the park, it was wooded and offered ample cover if she happened to bump into anyone on the way.

Fifteen minutes later she breathed a sigh of relief as she let herself in the back door. Luckily her fathers had replaced all the locks with digital keypads, so the fact that she didn't have a key wasn't a problem. She had blessedly not run into a soul, though she had a few false alarms that had sent her scurrying into the underbrush. In addition to the cuts on her feet, her arms and legs were scratched up, her hair was in tangles, and her skin was covered in bug bites, the sweet residue of the drink attracting them in droves.

Each painful step on the way home had slowly eroded her feelings of humiliation and shame, replacing them with an ever burgeoning rage. When she entered the dining room and saw the painstakingly arranged place settings for the romantic weekend she had been planning, all that bottled rage finally let loose.

Her puppy dog eagerness to have a romantic weekend with her _girlfriend _now only served to mock her, and rub salt in an already raw wound. Letting out a guttural cry she strode toward the table and swept her arm across the surface, sending all of the dishes and glasses crashing to the floor. Looking at the shattered remains of her fathers' best China she could only feel a bitter sense of satisfaction.

Turning her back on the mess she stomped up the stairs, intent on taking a shower and cleaning the various wounds and scratches adorning her body. The threat of the pictures was looming in the back of her mind, but she firmly shut the worry out. What's done was done; she would have to worry about a plan of attack in the morning. Right now there was only the need to get clean and scrub every remnant of this night from her body, if not her mind.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: First, thank you for all the kind reviews (sorry I forgot to thank everyone on chapter 3).**

**There will be one more part after this one, and then my first foray into Faberry land will be at and end (also my first finished fic).  
**

**There are a few subtle song references in this chapter - bonus points if you can find 'em :)  
**

Chapter 4

* * *

Quinn pulled into the driveway and quickly killed the ignition, eager to get back to the sleepover. Her errand had taken longer than anticipated since the only place that served vegan pizza was clear on the other side of town. Grabbing the three pizza boxes, she stepped out of the car and nudged the door closed with her foot.

Entering the house, she could hear voices coming from the pool area and figured everyone must still be outside. She went into the kitchen to set the pizzas on the counter and noticed the blender and other drink ingredients with a frown of displeasure. She would need to make sure to remove all traces of alcohol from the house before her mother got back tomorrow.

Padding quietly through the house, she could hear the voices getting louder as she approached the door that led out onto the patio. Looking through the glass she could see Stacy, Sarah and Allison in the midst of what appeared to be a fairly heated discussion, indicated by the raised voices and flailing arms. Her brow creased into a frown when she didn't immediately spot Rachel, Santana or Brittany. Opening the door quietly she stepped outside and was finally able to hear what the three Cheerios were saying.

"Are you kidding me?" Sarah cried out in annoyance, her back was to the door so she hadn't noticed Quinn's arrival.

"Seriously. Do you need to go to special ed classes?" Stacy was standing next to her friend, both were squared off and facing a cowering Allison. Quinn caught the other girls gaze and her frown deepened when she saw Allison's gaze widen in fear.

"What's going on?" The other two girls spun around finally alerted to Quinn's presence. Walking toward the group, she was able to see the pool and the fact that it did not contain the other three people at the sleepover. "Where are Rachel, San and Brit?"

Sarah smirked and crossed her arms across her chest. "Santana and Brittany have disappeared as usual. Rachel had to…leave unexpectedly." Sarah exchanged a sideways glance with Stacy and both girls smirked more broadly.

Quinn felt her throat tighten and her pulse accelerate. She knew that look, she should, she'd practically patented it. It was the look of someone that had just thoroughly tormented one of the school's losers, most typically Rachel. Balling her hands into fists she stepped forward threateningly.

"What the hell do you mean she had to leave?" she asked her voice dangerously low. The other girl must have read the implied threat in her question because she shifted uncomfortably and looked to Stacy for back-up. It was a rare thing for their captain to swear.

"Um...she...ah..she didn't say. She just suddenly had to leave," Sarah managed to stammer out while backing away from Quinn. Quinn swung her gaze to Stacy, pinning the other cheerleader in place.

"Is that what happened? Because I seriously doubt Rachel just suddenly decided it was time to go home. Something must have happened and one of you is going to tell me what the hell it was." Quinn could feel her control over her anger slipping. It was clear that something had happened to make Rachel leave, but if she went off on them they weren't likely to tell her.

Stacy looked to Sarah and the two shared a quick non-verbal communication, clearly they had misunderstood something. They had expected Quinn to be a little upset, mostly because they figured she was planning something herself. However, the reaction they were getting wasn't one of annoyance that a plan had been spoiled; it was just plain pissed off.

"It was no big deal," Stacy finally replied. "We decided it would be fun to go skinny dipping but she just kinda wigged out and took off." Quinn narrowed her gaze and continued to glare at the now squirming cheerleaders.

"And I don't suppose either of you said anything to her that may have made her want to leave?" Quinn was beyond pissed that her friends had managed to offend the petite singer. They were worse than children; she couldn't leave them alone for five minutes without them causing some kind of trouble.

Sarah shook her head in the negative. "We didn't. She just freaked out and took off," she insisted, looking to Stacy for confirmation. Stacy nodded her head in agreement. Quinn looked past them to zero in on Allison, figuring the quiet girl might provide a different take on things.

"Is that what happened?"

Allison looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Finally she nodded her head, jerkily. "Ye...yeah…we decided it would be fun but Rachel said she didn't want to."

Quinn narrowed her gaze at the trio. There was definitely something that they weren't telling her, a deaf and blind person would have been able to tell these three were lying through their teeth; or at the very least leaving a bit of the story out. She was about to press them a bit harder, to figure out exactly what they had said to Rachel to cause her to leave, when she was interrupted.

"Hey Q, what's going on? You look like you want to drive a stake into someone's chest." Santana strolled out onto the patio, flushed and slightly sweaty, her pinkie linked with Brittany's.

Quinn spun and confronted the new arrivals. "Where the hell have you been? I asked you to do _one_ simply thing, and you couldn't even do that," Quinn accused.

Santana stopped short and held up her hands in a halting gesture. "Chill the fuck out. I was in the house for like five minutes, B wanted some ice cream." Santana looked around the pool area, finally noticing that something was amiss. "Where's the Muppet?"

Quinn glared at the brunette. "Yes that seems to be the question. Apparently when you were inside getting _ice cream," _Quinn's voice dripped with sarcasm, "Stacy, Sarah and Allison decided to go skinny dipping and Rachel had to suddenly leave." Santana's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, the only sign of her surprise.

Quinn ran her hand through her hands in frustration. She didn't have time to deal with these idiots at the moment, she had to go find Rachel and make sure she was alright. "I am going to go to Rachel's house and make sure she's okay." She glared at the assembled group. "I hope for your sake that she corroborates your story." Not wanting to waste any more time she spun on her heels and stalked into the house. She had to go talk to her girl.

* * *

Four days later Quinn was almost at the breaking point; four days and still not a single word from Rachel. She had raced over to her girlfriend's house only to find all the lights out and the door locked. She had pounded on the door for over five minutes but had gotten no response. She would have been worried that the girl didn't make it home safely had it not been for the Streisand blasting from her open bedroom window.

Quinn had gone back several times, each trip ending in the same result. All of her calls and texts had gone unanswered as well. To say that she was worried was putting it mildly, as the weekend drew to a close she was closing in on utterly panicked.

She had bided her time and reassured herself that she would be able to finally talk to the girl Monday at school. Except that Rachel perfect-attendance Berry hadn't been at school. It had taken all of her resolve to stay at school and she had sped to the Berry house as soon as the final bell rang. She was met by Rachel's father telling her that Rachel wasn't feeling well and wasn't up for visitors. The normally affable man had been rather abrupt and had looked like he was struggling to remain civil. Quinn had left quietly, puzzled and worried by the icy reception.

One day of missed school was almost unheard of, two was practically apocalyptic. If Quinn had any doubts before that the Cheerios were lying, the fact that Rachel was missing not only school, but Glee as well was all the proof she needed. Her mission now was to track those lying cows down and find out exactly what they had done to upset her girlfriend so badly.

Unfortunately, this plan was going about as well as her one to talk to Rachel had. Third period had just ended and despite looking for Stacy and Sarah, surely the masterminds of whatever had taken place, the duo had remained frustratingly elusive. Slamming her locker door in agitation Quinn gathered her books and headed for her next class. Before she could take a step she bumped into someone that she hadn't seen standing right beside her.

"Watch it," she growled and shoved them out of the way, not bothering to see who she had collided with.

"Well aren't we just a little ray of sunshine this afternoon," Santana mocked. "Christ, are you still pissed off?"

Quinn spun to face the Latina. She had been making a point to try to avoid the brunette since this weekend, still extremely angry at her for leaving Rachel alone with those vultures. "Of course I'm still pissed off," Quinn bit out angrily. "It's been four days and I still haven't heard from Rachel. She hasn't responded to any of my calls or texts, her dads won't let me in to see her and now she's missing her second consecutive day of school. I'm starting to feel like a damn stalker!"

Santana rolled her eyes. "I'm sure she's fine. You know how melodramatic she can be, something which appears to be rubbing off by the way. She's probably just sulking and waiting for some grand romantic gesture as an apology or something."

Quinn scowled at her friend. "This isn't like Rachel. The silent treatment maybe, but not missing school and Glee, something is wrong," Quinn insisted. She finally noticed Brittany standing to Santana's right. "Hey B."

"Hey Quinn. Rachel's not feeling well?" Brittany asked, her brow furrowed in concern.

Quinn sighed, "I just don't know B, that's the problem, she won't talk to me. They must have done something to her, something more than they are letting on. I've tried to track down Stacy and Sarah to get some answers but they have apparently gone underground." Quinn glared at the brunette. "If someone had managed to keep it in their pants for five minutes maybe this could have been avoided."

"Whatever," Santana replied, clearly not affected by the accusation. "If you could date someone that didn't have the survival instinct of a fluffy kitten maybe she could have taken care of herself."

Quinn growled in annoyance. "You know what? I have better things to do then sit here and listen to you trash Rachel, yet again. See you at Cheerios practice," Quinn replied sweetly, before turning to march off down the hall. Someone needed to be reminded who was captain.

Brittany turned to look at the frowning brunette. "You made Quinn mad, S."

Santana sighed and turned to look at her blonde companion. "Yeah I sure did, I'm sure practice is going to just be extra fun today." Santana shook her head, she hated running laps. "Wanna go grab some lunch B?" To the Latina's surprise Brittany shook her head.

"No, I have to go do something."

"Want some company," the Latina asked huskily, a suggestive smile on her face.

"No, I have to do this by myself. Thanks though." Brittany smiled briefly before bounding down the hallway, leaving Santana standing alone.

"What the fuck?"

* * *

Rachel lay curled up on her side, staring blankly at the wall. She had been in pretty much the same position since leaving Quinn's house. The fury that had burned so hot that night had also burned fast, and she was once again left with only the crushing weight of humiliation. She couldn't go back to that school and face them, she wouldn't.

A soft knock sounded on her door and she released a sigh of frustration. Her fathers' meant well, she knew that, but their constant hovering and concern was starting to wear on her.

"Please go away, I told you I don't want to talk about it." When her fathers' had come home and found the mess in the dining room, which she had totally forgotten to clean up, they had gone into panic mode. Rachel came by her overly dramatic personality honestly. To convince them that the house hadn't been broken into and that she hadn't been attacked, she had been forced to tell them the general events of Friday evening, leaving out the crucial detail of the picture.

They had been furious about Quinn's involvement, and had wanted to go and confront her. Rachel and pleaded with them to just let it go. It didn't matter anymore, and letting the blonde know how deeply she had been affected by the event would just make her happier. They had reluctantly agreed to leave it alone, for now.

"Rachel honey, a friend is here to see you." Rachel rolled over violently and stared at the closed door in shock and disbelief. She couldn't believe that her father would let anyone in to see her after she had explained her humiliation at the party.

"I don't have any _friends,"_ she sneered. "Whatever they have to say, I have no interest in hearing." She rolled back over and faced the wall.

"Rachel? I brought you some chicken soup, Quinn said you weren't feeling well, it always makes me feel better." Rachel squeezed her eyes shut, desperately trying to fight back the tears at the mention of the blonde's name. Shit. They would send Brittany; only a complete ogre would be able to be mean to the sweet blonde.

Heaving a resigned sigh she rolled over on to her back, best to just get this over with so she could go back to licking her wounds in private. "Come in," she called out. She tilted her head towards the doorway and watched as the door swung open and Brittany walked in, a red and white can of soup clutched in her hands. "Close the door please," Rachel asked her father as she sat up on the bed.

He sent her a worried look, clearly not sure if she was really okay with the visitor. Rachel smiled wanly at him and nodded her head. No one could say no to Brittany it seemed, her father being no exception. "It's fine." He sent her a longer look, the concern easy to read, before he nodded his head and backed out of the room and closing the door with a soft click.

"Here." Brittany extended the can of soup to Rachel. Rachel silently took the can, not having the heart to remind the girl that she was vegan. Brittany sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her. "I heard Quinn and San talking, I got worried and wanted to make sure you were okay."

Rachel snorted bitterly. "Oh I'll bet they were talking." Rachel shook her head and then looked at Brittany. "Did they send you?" Rachel asked quietly. She didn't think the blonde was actually in on the prank, but she wouldn't put it past the other two to use her for their own ends.

Brittany shook her head. "No they don't know I'm here. San wanted to come but I know you two don't always get along and if you were sick I didn't want you to get upset." Rachel gave the blonde a measuring look, before shaking her head sadly.

"Why do you hang out with them Brittany?"

"With who?" Brittany asked, confused.

"Quinn and Santana," Rachel replied, a bite in her tone. "You've been friends with them since grade school, and I have just never seen that same desire to cause pain and destruction in you."

Brittany frowned in confusion. "I thought you were friends with Quinn now, special friends."

Rachel laughed; no trace of humor in the sound. "So did I, shows how stupid I am doesn't it?" The brunette stated more than asked harshly. Brittany reached over and patted the smaller girl comfortingly on the shoulder.

"You're not stupid Rachel." Brittany sat quietly beside her on the bed for several moments. "When are you coming back to school, Quinn's been really worried."

"I'm not," Rachel replied flatly.

"What do you mean?"

Rachel stood up from the bed and began to pace around the confines of her room. "I mean I am not going back to that school. I have spent years being the butt of all the jokes, the laughter, the ridicule, and I refuse to put up with it any longer."

Brittany frowned from her position on the bed. "But you have to go back, Quinn will be sad if you don't."

"I'm sure Quinn will survive." Rachel continued to pace, lost in her own world. "It's never going to be enough, I see that now. I foolishly thought that if I could just figure out what it was that drove them to hate me I could fix it. Fix me. I didn't do anything this time. I know I didn't. She sought _me _out. She pursued _me. _Why couldn't it have been enough? Why is it never enough?"

Rachel felt a hand land on her shoulder and she jumped, she had almost forgotten the other girl was in the room. "Don't cry Rachel, it'll be alright." Rachel reached up and touched her cheek, feeling the wet trail. She hadn't realized she was crying.

Rachel cleared her throat, embarrassed that her weakness was on display, even if just to Brittany. "I'm really not feeling well. Thanks for stopping by but I'd really just like to lie down."

"Are you sure? I could stay and we could cuddle, it always makes Santana feel better," Brittany offered sincerely, upset by the petite singer's tears.

Rachel gave her a watery smile. "I'm sure." Impulsively Rachel gave the blonde a quick hug. "You're sweet Brittany, don't ever let them change you." Wrapping a hand around the cheerleaders arm she guided her over to the door. She was drained and she really wanted to be left alone before she broke again.

At the threshold Brittany turned. "What do I tell Quinn?"

"Tell her she wins."

* * *

Santana strode down the hallway, looking for her usually constant companion. After skipping lunch Brittany had also failed to show up for fourth period. Santana was worried; the last time this had happened the blonde had somehow managed to get into the school basement and had been lost for hours. Brittany hated the dark.

Shoving a slow moving freshman out of her way she sighed in relief when she spotted the familiar form of Brittany standing at her locker. She was standing still looking at the door with a blank expression on her face.

"36-24-36," Santana supplied, figuring the blonde had forgotten her combination again. Brittany spun around, startled by the other girl's appearance. Santana frowned when she took in the sad expression on her friends face. "What's the matter B? Did someone say something to you?" Santana looked around, prepared to kick some ass if necessary.

Brittany shook her head. "Rachel's not coming back."

"Sure she is B, she's just in a snit, I'm sure it will blow over in a few days," Santana reassured her friend.

"She's not," Brittany insisted. "Quinn's going to be so sad."

Santana crinkled her brow, not quite following. "Who told you this B?"

"Rachel. I took her some soup at lunchtime so she'd feel better. But it didn't work, she's still sad and she said she wasn't coming back."

"I'm sure she was just exaggerating; you know how she can be. Give it a few days and Slushy-me-Elmo will be back and as annoying as ever," Santana replied glibly.

The normally placid blonde's face darkened with anger. "Why were we always so mean to her?" Brittany accused angrily, still upset about seeing the small diva break down earlier. "She's never done anything to anyone."

Santana was taken aback by the blonde's vehemence. "I was just joking B."

"Well it's not funny." Brittany started to stalk away, Santana following close behind. "Leave me alone Santana, I'm mad at you."

"Me?" Santana cried. "I didn't do anything!"

"You're mean. You're mean and now Rachel's leaving." For the second time that day Santana found herself standing alone in the hallway.

"What the fuck?"

* * *

Santana was on a mission. She scanned the hallway, looking for her prey. Finally spotting her target she moved in for the kill.

"Allison," she said smoothly, sliding alongside the girl and gripping her upper arm so she couldn't dash away. "A word please?" Not giving the girl time to respond Santana dragged her off to the bathroom. She pushed the girl through the door and leaned back against it to block the other girl's escape.

The nervous girl backed up against the sink, her wary gaze locked on the Latina. Santana smirked; Quinn was going about this entirely the wrong way. If you wanted results, you had to isolate the weak from the safety of the herd. Santana let the silence drag on, watching as the other girl began to squirm in discomfort.

"So…you..um..you wanted to talk to me?" Allison finally asked, not being able to stand the awkward silence any longer.

"What happened Friday night?" Santana cut straight to the chase, not wanting to waste time getting to the point.

Allison swallowed nervously. "What do you mean?"

"With Rachel," the Latina clarified. "What caused her to bolt and run?" When Allison opened her mouth to reply Santana held up a hand to silence her. "And please don't tell me the same bullshit story that you sold Quinn. Being lied to pisses me off and trust me when I say you don't want me pissed off."

If anyone had told Santana that she would find herself practically defending Rachel Berry a week ago she would have laughed in their face. But whatever had happened to Berry was now affecting her and that wasn't acceptable. Quinn was pissed at her, vacillating between ignoring her and giving her death glares. She could deal with Quinn; she was used to her mercurial relationship with the blonde. But now Brittany was giving her the silent treatment, and that shit was not cool. Since they were both pissed about the treatment of one annoying brunette it only made sense to get to the bottom of this situation once and for all.

Allison look confused. "You really don't know?"

"Why the fuck would I know? I was inside when it happened." Santana answered crossly.

"Well, Stacy and Sarah said you guys were in on it, I just thought you would have been aware of the details," Allison replied.

Santana frowned. "In on _what_?" the Latina questioned impatiently. "I really don't want to stand here all day playing twenty questions, just spit it the fuck out already."

Allison shifted her feet nervously and dropped her gaze. "They said that all of the girls on the squad had to pass an initiation…prove they were loyal to the squad. They um...they said that Quinn was just dating Rachel to string her along. That it was all just a set up."

"A set up?"

"Yeah, so that we could prank her." Allison looked up to meet the Latina's gaze. "I didn't want to do it, but they said that all the girls had too."

"Do what Allison?" Santana questioned, a little more calmly. It was clear the girl was petrified; Santana screaming at her was more likely to end in her passing out then giving her the answers she needed.

"The plan was to get her to trust us, to let down her guard so that she would go skinny dipping."

Santana was getting impatient again. "But she didn't, she left instead."

"Um…not exactly."

Santana smirked and arched a single eyebrow. "Berry actually stripped down?" Allison nodded. "I don't know if I should be impressed or afraid. Okay so what? They got her to strip down and then made fun of her?" Another nod from Allison. "Well I mean that's not that bad. Berry gets made fun of more than anyone I know, the naked bit is new, but hardly worthy of her four day seclusion stunt."

"They also threw their drinks on her," Allison continued.

Santana laughed, shaking her head. "You guys are seriously going to regret fucking with Berry. Quinn is going to have you on the bottom of the pyramid and running laps until you either graduate or die"

Allison paled at the Latina's pronouncement. "There's more," she squeaked out.

"More?" Santana questioned in surprise.

"They had me take her picture," Allison finally blurted out.

Santana pinched the bridge of her nose. Okay this wasn't good. "So…what? They took a picture and threatened to blackmail her with it?"

Allison shook her head. "There was no threat. The plan was just to take the picture and then send it to the whole school."

"What!" The Latina sprung away from the door and stalked toward the now cowering girl.

Allison flinched and drew back from the advancing brunette. "I didn't do it! She was so nice to me; and the look on her face…" Allison shook her head at the memory. "I couldn't do it."

Santana halted her advance. "So if you didn't send the picture what's the big deal? I mean granted I can see why she's pissed, but given the circumstances I would expect her to send Quinn after your asses instead of ignoring her."

"She doesn't know," Allison replied quietly.

"Doesn't know what?"

"She doesn't know that the picture wasn't sent. It was the only way I could ensure that they would let her leave. I lied and told them all that it had been sent out."

Santana closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Well that would certainly explain it. She didn't think she would want to come to school under those circumstances either. For the first time she actually felt a pang of sympathy for the small singer.

"She also thinks Quinn was in on it." Santana's eyes popped open at the announcement.

"And why would she think a crazy thing like that? Those two have been disgustingly love-sick since they started dating."

"Stacy and Sarah told her that it was all part of a plan to embarrass her."

Santana started to stalk back and forth in the small space, her mind racing. Even at the height of their Berry torment, she and Quinn would never have devised something this humiliating. And sure, she still threw the occasional insult the other girl's way, but that was mostly for show and out of habit then dislike. The reason for the brunette's silence was now painfully obvious. She stopped in her pacing and turned to face Allison.

"Okay, here is how this is going to work. You are going to avoid Quinn at all costs. Do. Not. Speak. To. Her. Run if necessary." Santana knew that if the blonde found out exactly what had happened to her girlfriend she was going to go fucking postal. She would do the same thing if it had happened to Brittany. "I am going to convince Berry to talk to Quinn, because this shit needs to be cleared up. Do you think you can manage that?"

Allison nodded her understanding. "I'm glad that Quinn wasn't a part of this, Rachel seems really sweet."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Christ, it is just a Berry love fest around here lately." Santana walked to the door and paused before exiting to turn back and address Allison one more time. "The picture?"

"I deleted it," Allison assured her.

Santana smiled. "Good girl. That might be the one thing that keeps you alive when Quinn finds out."

Rachel was once again curled up on her bed, facing the door instead of the window, because she needed a change of scenery. She was debating going down to the kitchen to grab something to eat while her father was out at the store picking up something for dinner, but she still didn't have much of an appetite.

In deference to her fathers' return she had substituted blasting her radio for her IPod. Currently the ever so apropos _I Dreamed a Dream_. Closing her eyes she let herself get lost in the music, trying desperately to block out everything else.

Rachel frowned, she was pretty sure that Ms. Lupone had missed a note.

Lost in her critique of the music she acted on pure instinct when she felt a hand grasp her shoulder from behind. Reaching up she grabbed the wrist of her would be attacker and tugged hard while rolling over on the bed, sending the person flying over the bed to crash onto the floor. Yanking her ear phones out she scrambled upright until her back was against her headboard.

"What the fuck?" cried a disgruntled voice.

"Santana?" Rachel questioned in disbelief, peering over the side of her bad.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" the Cheerio asked grumpily, rubbing the back of her head where it had made contact with the floor.

"I didn't know who it was. You could have been a rapist," Rachel defended.

Getting to her feet the Latina straightened her clothes. "I can assure you I am not here to steal your virtue Berry," Santana said with a smirk.

Rachel crossed her arms across her chest, the sudden appearance of another person in her room momentarily distracting her. "And just why are you here? Was Brittany sent by you and Quinn after all? Come to gloat?" Rachel fired the questions in rapid succession, her tone acidic. "You know what? I don't care, just get out." Rachel extended her arm and pointed towards the door. The still closed door. "How did you get in here?"

Santana sat down at the foot of the bed. "I climbed up onto the roof of your porch. You have a great set up for sneaking out of the house."

"I can assure you I have no need to sneak out of the house. My parents trust me implicitly," Rachel huffed indignantly. She was grateful that her irritation with the brunette was keeping her urge to cry at bay. "Please leave."

"No."

"No?" Rachel questioned in disbelief.

"No. We have to talk."

"I have nothing to say to you," Rachel insisted.

"Great. Maybe that means I will actually be able to get a word in edge wise."

Rachel glared at the cheerleader. "Did you only come up here to insult me? Was this weekend's escapade really not enough?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about actually. Brittany came to see me after lunch and she said you were upset and that you weren't coming back to school." Santana settled more comfortably onto the bed, figuring she might be here a while.

"I'm not."

"I didn't peg you for the drop out type," Santana taunted, calling the smaller girls bluff. There was no way Rachel Berry was going to end up a high school dropout.

''I am not going to dropout," Rachel replied icily. "I am going to transfer."

"Transfer?" Santana asked, sitting up straighter.

"Yes, to a high school for musically gifted teens. I considered it before freshman year but I didn't want to be away from my fathers. Given recent developments however, I have reconsidered my position, and while I will be a bit behind I am confident that I will be able to catch up."

"Berry you can't transfer," Santana insisted, concerned that the brunette seemed completely serious.

"I can and I have. I leave at the end of the week, my fathers' pulled in some favors and got my application expedited." Rachel paused to glare at the Latina. "I'm sure you and the rest of the squad won't have any trouble finding a new loser to harass." Rachel couldn't bring herself to actually say Quinn's name, afraid her voice would break.

"So you are just going to run away? Without even talking to Quinn?" Santana questioned.

"Why on earth would I want to talk to Quinn?" Rachel bit out.

"Because for reasons totally unknown to me she likes you, and has been walking around like a bi-polar she-demon since Friday."

Rachel snorted. "She has a funny way of showing it."

Santana looked at the singer in concern. They had done a lot of shit to her over the years, but she had always let it roll off her back and continued on, apparently unfazed. The girl sitting before her seemed brittle and broken.

"Quinn had no idea what was going to happen that night." Rachel snapped her attention to the Latina, searching her eyes for the truth behind the statement. She wanted to believe that what she said was true, but after the disastrous results the last time she had trusted her instincts, she was afraid to believe.

"Sure she didn't. It's just so much more plausible that she suddenly realized that she's been crazy about me all this time," Rachel sneered. She wasn't going to fall into this trap again.

"She didn't. Furthermore Allison never sent that picture." Rachel's eyes widened in surprise. "Seems she fell for your weird Berry charms and she actually likes you. She deleted the picture instead of sending it."

"But she said…" Rachel trailed off, torn between hope and fear. "How do I know this isn't all just a ploy to get me to come back to school? I'm sure that must have been the coup de grace for the plan, it must be frustrating that I've ruined the finale."

"Berry, if I had wanted to humiliate you we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation. You wouldn't have even seen it coming. Do you really think that any plan I was involved in would have been allowed to be botched so badly?"

Rachel had to concede that Santana did have a point, but her suspicion won out. "I'm not going to fall for this Santana," Rachel insisted, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Okay, I can understand why you wouldn't take my word for it, but what about Quinn's?"

Rachel shook her head. "I already told you, I have nothing to say to her." Coming face to face with the blonde, and seeing the contempt in her eyes would crush her.

"Do you really think so little of her? After all the time you spent with her this summer, you really think she could do something like this?" Santana persisted.

Rachel glared at Santana coldly. "What's a few months compared to years of past behavior?" Rachel's heart clenched as she remembered those few wonderful months. She tightened her jaw, determined not to let her resolve be clouded by sentiment. Quinn had lied. It was all just a joke, none of it was real.

Santana looked at the brunette with disgust. "So you are just going to run off without listening to her side of the story?"

Rachel nodded. "Yes."

Santana glared at the diminutive brunette. "Yeah, that's not going to be happening."

"Excuse me?"

"I will tie you to your desk chair and gag you if I have to, but you are going to hear Quinn out. You owe her that much," Santana informed the now spluttering singer.

"I don't owe her anything!" Rachel cried, springing up from the bed. She stalked over to the cheerleader and poked her in the chest. "I have spent years, _years, _being the brunt of every joke and mean spirited prank the two of you devised. I am done being the same stupid, trusting, naïve Rachel!"

Santana held her ground, wincing slightly as the singer's finger dug into her chest. Between her kung-fu action Yoda moves and her surprising strength, Santana was beginning to reconsider constantly trying to get a rise out of the other girl. "Fine. You found us out. It was all an elaborate plot to humiliate you." Hearing the Cheerio finally admit the truth, Rachel paled and backed away. Santana just looked at her and shook her head. "The getting to know you, the spending time with you, dating you, _kissing you_, all of it was just to get you naked and to her house so she could snap a picture which would then be sent to the student body."

Rachel deflated even further and went back to collapse on her bed, hanging her head down and staring at her feet. She felt tears start to well, but fought them back, determined not to break down in front of Santana.

"Tell me Rachel, how hard would Quinn have had to work to get you to strip?" Santana asked mockingly. Rachel snapped her head up and glared at the Cheerio. "If the only thing Quinn wanted was a naked snap shot something tells me she could have gotten it done a hell of a lot sooner, and saved herself a hell of a lot of time. And if Quinn and I had been behind this plan you never would have seen it coming. The first hint of it would have been when you walked into school on Monday."

The small brunette was quiet for a few moments. "You called me Rachel," she finally said softly.

Santana blinked in surprise. "I did?" Rachel nodded. "Well, I was trying to make a point, don't get used to it Berry. I swear on B, Quinn had nothing to do with this, and Allison never sent that picture." Santana looked around the room. "Didn't you wonder why you haven't been getting inundated with texts? Do you really think that if a picture like that was out there you wouldn't have been flooded by now?"

Rachel clasped her hands in her lap, still refusing to look up. "I don't have my phone."

The Latina frowned in confusion. "Why not? Where is it?"

"When I left Quinn's they wouldn't let me grab my stuff. I assume it's still there."

Santana shook her head. "It's not there. When Quinn went to talk to you on Friday B and I cleaned up after the other three left, we didn't come across any phone. Plus Quinn sent like 200 text messages this weekend, she would have found if it were at her place."

Rachel finally lifted her head and looked at the Cheerio; she looked genuinely puzzled. "Well I don't have it. Hopefully it's with the rest of my stuff, I don't care so much about the clothes but I spent a lot of time decorating that phone case."

"They made you leave without your clothes?" Santana asked, her voice rising in outrage.

Rachel was confused. Santana was a passable dancer, but she had never shown any aptitude for acting and she seemed genuinely pissed. Rachel simply nodded in response, eliciting a whistle from the Latina.

"They are so fucking dead," Santana snickered. "Quinn is going to unleash Armageddon on their asses." Santana looked over to the now quiet diva. "Will you please just talk to her? I can bring her here that way if you want her to leave you can get your fathers to kick her out." Santana rubbed the back of her still sore head. "Of course you might not need your dads help with that."

"I'm very fit," Rachel replied absently. She drew a deep breath and closed her eyes, torn about what to do. She wanted to believe what Santana was telling her. So badly that it scared her. She had spent the entire weekend building up her defenses against the blonde's betrayal. If she lowered those walls, and allowed herself to trust, and it all turned out to be a lie she didn't know if she would survive it.

Looking deeply into the Latina's eyes, hoping to detect any trace of artifice, Rachel asked, "You swear on B's life? She didn't do this?"

Santana maintained eye contact unflinchingly and raised her hand. "May I be struck celibate if I'm lying."

Rachel let out the breath she had been holding. She had to know. Though she feared for her sanity, she believed the Latina. Now that doubt had crept in she knew that the possibility that Quinn was innocent of wrongdoing would torment her if she didn't find out. "Okay. I'll talk to her."

Santana smiled. "Great." She looked down at her watch, if she hurried she could catch the blonde before she went home after Cheerio's practice. Fuck. The practice that she had missed. Sylvester was going to kill her. The things she did for love.

"I'll be back with Quinn in a half hour, try not to hop any planes before then." Santana turned back towards the window, prepared to make her exit.

"Santana," Rachel called out with a barely suppressed laugh. "You can use the door."

Santana paused before turning back. "Oh. Thanks….Rachel."

"…."

"…"

"That was weird," Rachel finally broke the awkward silence.

Santana nodded her head emphatically in agreement. "Fucking weird. I think once was enough, let's not do that again."

Rachel nodded her head. "Agreed." Rachel smiled at the Latina, some of her former self finally shining through. "Thank you Santana."

Santana paused, her hand on the door knob. "Don't mention it. And I mean that literally, if anyone at school finds this out I will never live it down."


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Here is the final part of this short. Thanks to all of you that have read, reviewed, alerted and faved this fic, you guys rock! Also thanks to my beta, I'm sure this would be way more nonsensical without ya. **

**I would love to know what you all think of the final product, as my beta will attest I have hard time finding the end point.**

Chapter 5

* * *

Quinn shouldered her gym bag and stormed out of the locker room, absolutely livid that she hadn't been able to catch either Stacy or Sarah after practice. Santana had bailed, causing Sue to run them into the ground like some drill sergeant on speed. Now, all she wanted was to grab something to eat and then try to speak to Rachel. Not necessarily in that order.

Striding towards her car, she scowled when she saw a certain brunette leaning against the side, arms and legs crossed, the very picture of someone that didn't' have a care in the world. "Where the hell have you been?" Quinn growled, coming to a stop in front of the Latina. "Coach was even more sadistic then usual since her former captain bailed on practice."

Santana continued to lounge against the car, not swayed by Quinn's irritation. "I had something I had to take care of."

"I hope it was important. Now will you please get out of the way, I have more important things to do than stand here talking to you." Quinn pushed the other girl, eager to be on her way.

Santana stumbled slightly before regaining her balance. "See I try to do someone a favor and this is how I get treated," Santana called out as she started to walk away, leaving Quinn with a confused look on her face.

"What favor?" Quinn finally called out. It really wasn't like Santana to miss practice for no reason, and since Brittany had been present and accounted for, the most likely cause didn't apply.

"Since you have proven yourself to be woefully inept at handling your girlfriend troubles, I decided to step in and help you out," Santana declared, a small smile twisting her lips. "You are even more unbearable than I am when you aren't getting any."

Quinn felt an odd mix of curiosity and dread. Santana's involvement could easily turn out to be a curse or a blessing. "What did you do?" Quinn asked, struggling to keep the accusation out of her tone.

Her attempt must have failed because Santana clutched a hand to her chest and adopted a hurt expression. "I'm wounded, Quinn. Truly hurt. Here I am selflessly trying to help you out and you act like I've done something wrong."

Quinn sighed. "I'm sorry," she said with false sincerity. "I didn't mean to make it sound like an accusation. I am just on edge about this whole situation." Quinn drew a steadying breath. "What did you do?" Quinn asked again, less accusingly.

Santana smiled. "Well first I had a little chat with Allison." Santana smiled more broadly when she saw Quinn frown. "Did you learn nothing over the years Fabray? The weak are always the easiest targets." Quinn narrowed her gaze, not really wanting a reminder about her past torment of the school's less popular students. "Anyway, she had some very interesting things to say."

"Such as?" Quinn questioned impatiently.

"Why don't we get in the car? I can tell you the rest on the way to Berry's," Santana hedged, not wanting to tell Quinn the whole story while still on school grounds. The likelihood that she would want to immediately hunt down the two Cheerios responsible was about as likely as Sylvester coming to school in a tracksuit.

Quinn narrowed her eyes at the suddenly fidgety Santana. "Why would we be going to Rachel's? I already told you that her dads' won't let me in to see her."

"Oh did I forget to mention that I also spoke to Berry? Well I did, and after some persuasion on my part, she has agreed to speak to you."

"Persuasion?" Quinn questioned, slightly panicked. "You didn't hurt her did you? Wait. Rachel agreed to see _you_ but not me?"

"Do you want to waste time interrogating me in the parking lot, or do you want to go make everything well in the land of Lilliput?" Santana asked impatiently. She needed to get Quinn in the car and off school grounds, plus the sooner she could drop her off with Berry the sooner she could make things right with B.

"Fine," Quinn huffed, dropping the gym bag off her shoulder to fish for her keys. "Hey!" She yelled when Santana snatched the keys out of her hand. "I thought you wanted to get going. Give me back my keys."

Santana shook her head. "Nope. I want to arrive at Berry's in once piece and I fear that there might be an explosive case of road rage if you are behind the wheel, so you get shotgun," Santana instructed, unlocking the door and sliding in behind the wheel.

Quinn opened her mouth to argue, but realized that she really didn't care; she was still so wiped from practice that not having to drive didn't sound half bad. Walking around the car, she tossed her gym bag onto the backseat before getting into the passenger seat.

As soon as the door closed Santana put the car in gear and drove off. "Okay, first you have to promise to not freak out," Santana requested.

Quinn shot her a look of disgust. "Gee that's a great way to start a conversation and calm my nerves," she said mockingly. "Just tell me Santana, I have been driving myself nuts going over what could have happened. Whatever it is can't be as bad as what I have been imagining."

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that," the brunette muttered under her breath. Speaking more loudly Santana said, "Right, so you know when Stacy and Sarah said that they wanted to go skinny dipping but Berry freaked out and left?"

"Yes…" Quinn replied dragging the answer out.

"Well, they lied." Santana figured it was best to just rip the band aid off. "Rachel did strip down." Quinn was so focused on trying to process this rather startling piece of information that she totally missed the fact that Santana had actually used Rachel's first name.

"She what?" Quinn asked darkly, a faint stirring of jealousy forming in her stomach. Not even she had seen her girlfriend naked, the brunette always calling a stop before it reached that point, but apparently Rachel had no qualms about baring it all to her squad mates. Shaking her head to clear the image, she tried to focus on what Santana was saying; knowing there was bound to me more to the story.

"Apparently, when you get a little liquor in her, Berry is able to remove that stick she usually has jammed up her ass and actually let loose a little," Santana joked. Noting that Quinn was not amused, she quickly moved on. "Now I didn't get all the details, because honestly I didn't care, but they somehow managed to get Rachel out of the pool, tossed some drinks on her, made fun of her, took a picture and then sent her on her way." Santana finished the list in one breath, not wanting to give Quinn time to interrupt, and knowing that an explosion was going to be imminent.

"They did what!" Quinn thundered, causing Santana to wince at the volume. "Turn the car around. Now." Quinn felt sick, her stomach flipping at Santana's revelation. It was no wonder Rachel was in hiding. The girl had endured countless humiliations, but this one was extreme and she probably blamed Quinn for leaving her all alone with them.

"Christ Q! Blow my ear drum out," Santana grumbled. "I'm not turning the car around; there will be more than enough time to draw and quarter the Cheerios after you make nice with your girlfriend."

Torn between rage and guilt, Quinn shot Santana a sideways glance. "Why do you even care? I mean you seem to be going through an awful lot of trouble for someone you don't even like."

"I don't care," Santana replied, brushing off the question. "If you weren't dating the little freak I wouldn't be here right now, but you are, and since we aren't enemies at the moment and B is pissed at me over this, I figured that it was the least I could do."

"Britt's mad at you?" Quinn asked surprised. "Britt never gets mad at you, even when you act like a total asshole, which is often."

Santana sent Quinn an insincere smile. "Gee thanks," she offered sweetly. "Why am I helping you again?"

"What's B mad at you for?" Quinn questioned, reminding the Latina why she was here.

"Oh she's mad because she thinks my being mean to Berry is part of her wanting to leave," Santana replied.

"Leave?" Quinn asked confused. "Where is she going?"

Santana winced, forgetting that she had left out a few key parts of the events on Friday night. "Look there's no need to panic or anything, I'm sure once you talk to her and set the record straight, she won't be going anywhere," Santana tried to reassure the worried blonde, but only succeeding in escalating her concern.

"Really not making me feel any better Santana." Quinn drew in a steadying breath and closed her eyes. "Just tell me."

Santana sighed, knowing that this was going to suck; Quinn had put a lot of effort into earning the singer's trust and showing her that she wasn't the same person anymore. "There were a few parts of Friday that I may have forgotten to mention." Quinn just looked at Santana, remaining silent. "They may have led Rachel to believe that you were in on the prank," Santana finally revealed quietly, waiting for the fallout.

Quinn felt tears well almost immediately. "She thinks I did this?" She whispered.

"I'm sure it was just the shock of the situation, once she really sits down and thinks about it she'll realize you could never do something like that," Santana reassured the stricken blonde.

"It's been four days Santana, she's had time. She must hate me." Quinn interlaced her hands and folded them in her lap, focusing on them with every ounce of concentration; anything to keep her from falling apart.

Santana cursed herself, she hadn't meant to make Quinn feel worse. "Quinn she doesn't hate you. She just had a really big shock, and yeah given your history, it was probably easy for them to influence her. Her unwillingness to let you in to see her has just made things worse, but I talked to her, and she's willing to hear you out. She wants you to be innocent Quinn, it's not going to take much."

"It's no wonder she didn't answer any of my calls or texts," Quinn continued as though Santana hadn't spoken.

The Latina cringed. "She wasn't ignoring your calls Quinn, she didn't get them, they made her leave without her clothes and phone."

Quinn's head snapped towards Santana to look at her with a shocked expression before she shook her head. "Is there anything else you aren't telling me Santana? It seems every time we have finally gotten to the end you reveal a new and more horrible aspect," Quinn accused crossly, welcoming the anger and using it to drown out the pervasive sense of guilt.

Santana breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled to a stop in front of the Berry house. This emotionally charged atmosphere of the car was starting to wear on her. "Just that we're here." Santana looked past Quinn. Quinn spun in her seat to stare blankly at the tidy two story cape that Rachel called home.

"What do I say to her?" Quinn asked in a small voice.

"Just tell her the truth Quinn, everything will be fine." Santana smirked and handed the keys to her friend, pushing her playfully on the shoulder. "Now stop stalling and go get your girl. Now that I have done my good deed for the decade I should be able to convince B to forgive me."

Quinn smiled gratefully at her friend, but didn't get out of the car right away. Knowing what the other cheerleaders had put her through, she was afraid that the small diva would not forgive her as easily as Santana seemed to think. Drawing one last deep breath, Quinn grasped the door handle with a slightly trembling hand. "Thanks Santana, you're a good friend."

Santana rolled her eyes. "If you try to hug me I swear I will punch you." Santana pointed at the house over Quinn's shoulder. "Out."

With a nod of her head Quinn exited the car and started for the house. She wiped her sweaty palms on the soft cotton of her shorts. She could never remember being this nervous, not even when she had come to pick up Rachel for her first date, knowing that she was going to face the smaller girl's two fathers'; two fathers' that had known all about her past treatment of their daughter.

Her face paled when she realized that they likely also knew about Friday night. Oh God. She spun around and headed back toward the car, not sure she could face this.

"Quinn?" She stopped and slammed her eyes shut. Rachel. Slowly she turned around and came face to face with the girl for the first time in four days. She looked exhausted, her skin looked pale and dull, her eyes had dark circles, and her hair was a little bit unkempt. Quinn had never seen a more gorgeous sight.

"Hey." Quinn felt like an idiot. She had been trying for days to get the other girl to talk to her and once she finally got to see her, she was struck mute.

Rachel opened the door a little wider and stepped out onto the small front porch. "Were you leaving?" She questioned uncertainly.

"No I was just…" Quinn trailed off. This was ridiculous. "Santana told me what happened." Quinn quickly walked towards Rachel, finally finding her resolve. "I swear Rachel, I had no idea they were going to do that." Rachel looked at her quietly before nodding her head slightly.

"Come inside where we can talk, I don't really want to air all of the details to my neighbors." It wasn't the immediate fall in to each other's arms reunion that Quinn had dared to let herself hope for, but at least Rachel wasn't slamming the door in her face. She would take it.

Entering the house behind Rachel, Quinn looked around nervously. "Are your dad's home?" Quinn better understood the look that Rachel's father had given her when she had stopped by after school on Monday.

"No. Dad doesn't get home until 7 and Daddy went to the store to pick up a few things for dinner." Quinn sighed; relieved that she wouldn't have to face Rachel's parents just yet and ignored the twinge of hurt she felt when the other girl didn't automatically extend a dinner invitation; Rachel always invited her over for dinner. Quinn followed Rachel quietly up the stairs and into the brunette's bedroom.

Quinn stopped just inside the doorway, not sure just how welcome she truly was in the room. Rachel walked over and sat down on her bed. "So Santana told you about our talk?" Rachel finally broke the awkward silence that had fallen.

Quinn nodded, and took a few tentative steps further into the room. "I promise you I had no idea they were going to do anything like that, and I certainly wasn't in on it," Quinn pleaded. "You believe me right?"

Rachel didn't answer right away, taking a long look at the blonde. She looked haggard. Even when she was going through all the drama surrounding Babygate, Rachel didn't recall her looking this drained. Her first instinct upon seeing the blonde on her doorstep had been to wrap her in a big hug and tell her everything would be fine. Rachel had quashed that desire, determined to find out the truth before putting herself out there again.

"I want to," she finally answered honestly. "It's just hard Quinn. There's a part of me that knows that you would never have done anything like this, not after how close we became this summer." Quinn smiled at her tremulously. "Then there's another part that thinks maybe I just want this to be true so badly I am just overlooking the obvious, and that I am nothing but a trusting naïve fool." Rachel dropped her gaze to her lap, not able to maintain eye contact with the blonde.

The tentative smile slid off Quinn's face and she finally walked over and sat beside Rachel on the bed. "You're not a fool." Gathering her courage, and bracing herself for rejection, Quinn reached over and grasped one of Rachel's hands. "Look at me," she pleaded.

Rachel reluctantly lifted her gaze and met the blonde's hazel stare. "You are one of the sweetest people I have ever met. You're willingness to forgive people that have been horrible to you is one of the things I most envy. That generosity of spirit is a rare thing, and it doesn't make you a fool. The only fools are the ones that take advantage of it." Quinn reached up and unconsciously brushed a lock of hair behind Rachel's ear, causing the smaller girl to close her eyes briefly and lean into the touch. "Don't let three small minded cheerleaders take that away from you Rachel."

"Two cheerleaders," Rachel corrected absently. Call her a naïve, trusting fool, but Rachel believed what Quinn was telling her. Looking into the other girls eyes, Rachel couldn't see anything but honesty and affection.

"Two?" Quinn frowned in confusion.

Rachel nodded. "Apparently after Allison got to know me, and realized what a wonderful person I am, she couldn't go through with it and deleted the picture instead of sending it." Rachel couldn't quite suppress the hint of happiness in her tone when revealing that Allison liked her.

Quinn closed her eyes and drew in a calming breath. "Santana must have left out a few _minor_ details," Quinn stated sarcastically. Opening her eyes she once again gazed at her, at least she still hoped, girlfriend. "Tell me what happened. All of it."

Rachel sighed, not really wanting to rehash one of the worst nights of her life. "Can't we just forget about it?" When Quinn just continued to stare at her silently Rachel relented. "Fine. After you left Santana got….bored." Quinn snorted and raised her eyebrow. "She and Brittany went into the house and after a few minutes Sarah suggested we all go skinny dipping." Rachel looked at Quinn nervously, not sure how her girlfriend would take this news, and was met with a glower of disapproval.

Rachel flushed slightly and quickly moved on. "So after Allison and I went off to swim for a bit we came back to find Sarah gone. She came back with some drinks and said that there were two more in the house for Allison and me if we wanted to get them. Allison seemed really uncomfortable about the whole naked thing, so I volunteered."

Rachel drew a deep breath and braced herself to tell the next part. "I couldn't see my clothes or a towel so I just decided to make it quick. When I stepped back outside they surprised me with a slushie shower, and a camera." Quinn ground her teeth together, determined to keep quiet until Rachel finished recounting the events of that evening. The urge to interrupt and apologize again was almost overwhelming.

"Allison snapped a picture. Sarah and Stacy said some unkind things and implied that you were in on it. Allison confirmed that she had sent the picture, which Santana assures me was a lie?" The statement was left hanging in the air as a question. Quinn wanted to assure her girlfriend that it was definitely not circulating, but she just didn't know.

Clearing her throat, which had tightened with emotion as the smaller girl recounted her ordeal, Quinn finally broke her silence. "I don't think Santana would lie," Quinn assured Rachel. "I am only finding out about this picture today, and that is pretty telling. I can't imagine if such a picture exists, that it wouldn't have been all over school by now." Quinn knew that was hardly the most reassuring answer but it was the best she could do.

Rachel nodded her understanding. "After that they just sent me home."

"Santana told me they didn't let you grab your clothes and stuff before leaving." Rachel flushed, embarrassed, but simply nodded her head. "I am going to fucking kill them," Quinn ground out. "Santana left out the small fact about them telling you they sent the picture. That's why you've been missing school isn't it?"

Rachel nodded her head. "I couldn't face it Quinn. Knowing that when I walked in the doors everyone would have seen me naked..." Rachel shuddered at the thought. "...I just couldn't face it."

Since the brunette hadn't yet pulled her hand away, Quinn felt emboldened enough to slide her other arm around Rachel's shoulders and pull her into a one armed hug. She let out a sigh of relief when Rachel leaned into the contact instead of pulling away.

"You won't have to. Like I said, I can't imagine something like this staying quiet if it exists, but I will get Santana to confirm it through threat of death before you set foot in school tomorrow." Suddenly remembering something else that Santana had said Quinn frowned. "You are coming back to school right? San mentioned something about you leaving?"

Rachel lifted her head up from where she had been resting it on Quinn's shoulder. "When I told my dads' what happened I pleaded with them to not make me go back. I considered going to Mt. Sebastian High School for the Performing Arts after junior high, but decided that I didn't want to be away from my family. We all decided that given the circumstances maybe a late transfer would be best."

Quinn winced. "So your dads know what happened? They must hate me," Quinn stated sadly.

"They were less then pleased. I had to actually restrain Daddy from driving to your house when they got back Sunday." Quinn tried to pull away but Rachel wrapped her arm firmly around her waist and held her in place. "When I tell them the truth they will be fine. It wasn't your fault Quinn."

Quinn looked into the brunette's warm chocolate eyes. "Does that mean you believe me?" She asked hopefully, her heart fluttering in her chest.

Rachel nodded, a grin spreading across her face. "I do. I'm so sorry I doubted you, I should have..."

Quinn leaned forward and kissed her, cutting off the apology. Pulling back slightly she whispered, "Don't apologize, it wasn't your fault." Leaning back in she recaptured the brunette's lips. Sighing happily when Rachel brought her hand up to run through her hair, she deepened the contact, gently parting the other girl's lips with her tongue. Rachel parted her lips and eagerly greeted Quinn's tongue with her own.

Quinn broke the kiss, resting her forehead against Rachel's, not willing to lose contact with the other girl. "This means you're staying right? You'll tell your dads that you don't want to transfer."

Rachel nodded her head, still running her hand soothingly through Quinn's hair. "They'll be relieved actually. I don't think they were quite ready to let me go, but under the circumstances were willing to accede to my wishes."

Quinn left out a breath of relief she hadn't even been aware she was holding. She flopped backwards onto the bed, dragging a startled Rachel down with her. Rachel let out a little 'oomph' of surprise, but wasted no time snuggling up against the blonde and resting her head in the crook of Quinn's neck.

"Sorry," Quinn said. "I'm just beat. Between the physical demands of practice and this little chat I feel like I have been hit by a bus." She tilted her head sideways and kissed the top of Rachel's head, squeezing her tightly with the arm that she still had wrapped around her. "I'm glad you decided to stay. It would have been really embarrassing to have to stalk you to…" Quinn trailed off, not sure where the high school was located.

"Chicago," Rachel answered softly, running her hand in soothing circles on Quinn's stomach.

"..Chicago," Quinn repeated. "So we're okay right?" Quinn was still afraid that despite her assurances part of the brunette still doubted her. Quinn felt the smaller girl nod.

"We're fine. Assuming you can forgive me too."

Quinn pulled her head back and tried to look down at the other girl, but her face was still buried in her neck. "Rachel you don't have anything to apologize for, I should have known better than to leave you alone with them."

"What they did was horrible, but I should have trusted you Quinn." Pushing herself upright Rachel hovered over Quinn so that she could look her in the eyes. "You have done nothing to make me doubt you since we have been together. It wasn't fair of me to jump to that conclusion. A relationship is doomed without trust and I just want to know that you can forgive me, and I promise to never jump to conclusions like that again without talking to you," Rachel insisted earnestly, looking intently into her girlfriends eyes.

Before she could react, Quinn quickly rolled Rachel over onto her back and pinned her to the bed. "I think it's silly and unnecessary, but if it means that much to you. Yes, even though you did _nothing_ wrong, I forgive you. Although we might have to have a discussion about when and where it is appropriate to get naked," Quinn teased.

"Quinn," Rachel whined, avoiding the kiss that the blonde was trying to bestow on her. "I know this must have hurt you, you can't just suppress all the pain and anger you are feeling, it can't be healthy. If you don't discuss this openly it is only going to fester and lead to resentment later on."

Quinn groaned, and let her head drop to the bed beside Rachel's. Rolling to the side so she wasn't crushing the smaller girl she wrapped her arms around the brunette. "I'm not repressing my anger. I am just not mad at you." Quinn leaned forward to press a quick kiss to Rachel's lips. "I fully intend to let those responsible know the extent of my displeasure."

Rachel eyed the look on Quinn's face warily. Her girlfriend was plotting something. "Quinn I don't want you exacting retribution on my behalf," Rachel insisted.

Quinn blinked, pulling herself out of her revenge planning haze. "But Rachel, what they did was completely out of line. I can't just let it slide." Quinn looked at her girlfriend in disbelief; surely Rachel wouldn't prevent her from exacting payback.

Rachel shook her head. "It won't do any good. All it does is establish a feedback cycle and they will be looking to do something even worse next time. It will never end. Please, for me, let it go."

Quinn pursed her lips and glared darkly. "They had better not try anything else. If they do then I will be forced to..."

"Quinn!" Rachel cried. "That is exactly my point. If you do this then it just perpetuates the cycle."

"But Rachel," Quinn whined. She opened her mouth to continue, to plead her case but the pleading look on the brunette's face stopped her cold. Huffing she conceded, "Fine. How about a compromise?"

"A compromise?" Rachel asked, intrigued. She loved it when Quinn showed that she was willing to put in work to make their relationship work.

"I agree not to publicly eviscerate them, BUT in exchange, I get to make their lives a living hell in practice."

Rachel thought the proposal over briefly before nodding her assent. "I find this to be an agreeable middle ground. I really have no say in how you run your squad and I am sure Ms. Sylvester will stop you before you commit homicide."

Quinn decided it would probably be better not to dissuade Rachel of that notion and leaned over to kiss the girl again. Before things could get too heated a loud growling noise filled the room. Quinn pulled back and flushed in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," she replied sheepishly. "I came here straight after practice and I didn't get a chance to eat."

Rachel smiled and pecked the blonde on the lips. "There is nothing to be embarrassed about, it is a normal bodily response to hunger." Reaching over she brushed Quinn's hair back from her face. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Quinn smiled and nodded her head happily. "I would love to."

* * *

Rachel sat in the passenger seat of Quinn's car and looked nervously out the window. It was nearly 15 minutes until the bell for first period, so the campus was beginning to fill with students. Rachel jumped when she felt Quinn rest a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently.

"It's going to be fine," Quinn reassured. "I spoke to Santana last night; she talked to most of the squad mates and threatened to castrate Puck if he didn't tell her the truth. That picture never got out."

Rachel turned her head to meet her girlfriend's reassuring gaze. "I know. You're right. Sitting here and dwelling isn't helping." Rachel smiled brightly, not sure if she was trying to convince Quinn or herself. She gripped the door handle firmly and opened the door. "Let's go. 'Fortune favors the brave."

Quinn stepped out of the car and walked around to stand beside her girlfriend. Reaching out she grasped Rachel's hand and intertwined their fingers. Rachel looked down at their joined hands in mild surprise.

Seeing the questioning look Quinn smiled and gripped the brunette's hand more firmly. "I know we said we wouldn't hide our relationship, and we haven't been, but we also haven't been going out of our way to make sure people know. I can't help but think that if I had been a little more open, that Sarah and Stacy wouldn't have thought that I was possibly stringing you along."

Rachel beamed at the blonde. "That's very sweet of your Quinn. I didn't want to pressure you into showing public signs of affection if you weren't yet ready for them. The fact that you are willing to take this next step makes me extremely happy."

Quinn grinned back. "Well I'm glad." Quinn tugged on Rachel's hand and the pair started walking towards the school. "Did you just quote for Elton John's Aida? I thought you said that show was bland, boring, emotionally shallow and a travesty of the Broadway stage," Quinn questioned.

Rachel looked temporarily nonplussed. "I did." She smiled happily at Quinn, and reached up to kiss her on the cheek. "I can't believe you remembered that. I must be nervous; I have no idea why I would quote that. That show was extraordinarily insipid"

"Christ, get a room," Santana yelled, walking towards them, Brittany in tow. "I know I helped you guys get back together, but if my repayment for that is going to have to be watching you make out, I take it back."

Quinn halted her progress toward the doors and turned to greet the other Cheerio. "Please, after the countless times I have had to watch you and Britt practically molest each other I think you can stand a simple kiss on the cheek."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Whatever." Santana looked at Rachel and nodded her head. "Glad to see you aren't a total moron Berry, though I must admit, the idea of gagging you did have some appeal."

"Hey!" Quinn cried indignantly, not sure exactly what Santana was referring to. "Leave her alone."

Rachel patted her arm soothingly. "It's okay Quinn. Santana and I have come to an understanding." Rachel looked at the happily bouncing blonde that was standing beside Santana. "Good morning Brittany."

Brittany grinned broadly and wrapped Rachel in a bear hug. Rachel let out a small squeak of surprise before awkwardly wrapping one arm around the other girls back. Brittany released her and pulled back. "I'm so glad that you and Quinn were able to work it out. It wouldn't have been the same around here if you had left."

"So quiet and peaceful," Santana chimed in, earning a scowl from Quinn.

"Well thank you Brittany. I am just glad to be back, and eager to put all of the unpleasantness behind me."

At the mention of unpleasantness Santana's eyes lit up and she rubbed her hands together eagerly. "Speaking of unpleasantness, what's the plan? Constant slushies? Daily trips to the dumpster? Gluing their lockers closed? Swirlies? All of the above?"

Quinn opened her mouth to respond but Rachel beat her to it. "Actually Santana, I have decided it would be counterproductive to perpetuate an atmosphere of constant retaliation and escalation, and have requested that Quinn not pursue any type or recourse on my behalf."

Santana gaped at her in shock. "Are you fucking kidding me?" She turned to stare at Quinn. "Tell me she is joking."

Quinn flushed slightly but met Santana's gaze evenly. "She's not joking. She requested that I let it go, and since this happened to her it's her call."

Santana looked outraged. "I can't believe this! You're just going to let these two bitches get away with totally disrespecting you." Santana pinned Rachel with an accusing glare. "I blame this on you. You are making Quinn totally soft. A year ago she would have had them stripped bare and staked to the center of the football field."

Rachel raised her chin and met the Latina's gaze defiantly. "I prefer to approach these situations in a more mature and rational manner, and Quinn agrees. Don't you Quinn?"Quinn looked like she wanted to argue but she swallowed her words and simply nodded her head. Santana threw her arms up in exasperation.

"Sometimes the best course of action is to forgive those that have transgressed against you," Rachel insisted, smiling warmly at Quinn.

Santana narrowed her eyes and huffed in disgust. "And sometimes the best course of action is to bust some ass," Santana insisted.

Rachel shook her head. "I appreciate your concern on my behalf Santana, but I really just want to put this entire ordeal behind me."

"I'm not concerned," Santana insisted defensively. "I was just looking forward to causing some torment. It makes my day a little brighter and this had the potential to be an epic campaign of humiliation. But you just had to be all mature and take all my fun away."

Rachel smiled warmly at the brunette. "Of course, and I apologize for spoiling your fun, but I am confident that you will find something to fill the void."

Santana smirked at the smaller girl. "Oh you can count on it Berry." Santana grabbed Brittany's hand dragged her towards the doors. "C'mon Brit, lets ditch these two and you can help me fill that void," Santana said suggestively.

"Get a room!" Quinn yelled after the retreating pair.

Santana looked back over her shoulder and grinned. "Jealous?"

Quinn scoffed. "Hardly. I'm just sure trying to make sure no one is scarred for life."

"I don't know Q, you still seem a little grumpy, you might learn something," Santana taunted.

Quinn flushed, whether from embarrassment or irritation Rachel wasn't sure. "I can assure you that neither I nor Quinn require your dubious assistance," Rachel defended.

Santana opened her mouth to argue but stopped when Brittany leaned over to whisper something in her ear. Grinning widely Santana nodded her head. "You're right B. Later bitches." With one last wave from Brittany the duo disappeared inside the school.

Rachel sent a sideways glance at her girlfriend. "You're not jealous are you?"

Quinn looked at Rachel in surprise. "Of Santana? No, I can honestly say that I am not. My idea of a good time is not hooking up in the janitor's closet or the girls bathroom," Quinn assured her girlfriend.

Rachel smiled and wrapped her arm around the blonde's, reaching up to kiss her on the cheek again. "Good. I am sure that can not possibly be a sanitary place to engage in intimate activity." Rachel paused. "Although, I know that the Glee room is empty at this hour, and while I do not want our first time to be some hurried coupling on school grounds, I would not be against sharing in some alone time before class starts."

Quinn cocked an eyebrow and looked down at the smaller girl. "Why Rachel Berry, are you propositioning me?"

Rachel nodded her head, grinning happily. "I do believe that I am."

Quinn grabbed Rachel's hand and tugged her towards the school. "Then what are we standing here for? We've only got ten minutes and it seems a shame to waste them." Laughing, Rachel followed her girlfriend into the school, all the thoughts and worries that had been plaguing her effectively forgotten.

**The End**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**v**

**Okay not really the end – surely you knew there was no way this was going to end without Sarah and Stacy getting what they had coming to them – not everyone is as forgiving as Rachel ;)**

"I can't believe what a bitch Quinn is being," Sarah complained as she and Stacy finally entered the locker room. Practice had been grueling all week and Quinn had insisted that they stay behind to put away all the equipment and clean up after the squad. They were both bone tired, sweaty and more than ready to jump in the shower.

"Oh I know. I mean we played one little joke on her pet and she totally loses her fucking shit," Stacy agreed, stripping out of her uniform and throwing it on the floor. She would pick it up after her shower.

"It's not like the plan worked anyway thanks to that coward Allison," Sarah griped. "God I'm wiped. Let's grab a shower and get the fuck out of here."

Padding towards the showers the girls stripped off the rest of their clothes, and left them in trail behind them. For several minutes, nothing could be heard in the locker room save for the hiss of the shower heads. Walking back toward the changing area clad only in towels, the girls continued their earlier discussion.

"All I am saying is that I think it wouldn't hurt to put Quinn her place once and for all. I don't know how she thinks she can get away with the shit she does. First she gets pregnant, then it turns out not even to be her boyfriends, and then she starts dating, not just a girl, but Rachel fucking Berry. It's too much, and she needs to be knocked off of that pedestal," Sarah complained bitterly.

"I couldn't agree more. I just don't know what we can do to accomplish it," Stacy commented, opening her locker and frowning in confusion when she saw that it was empty. "Where the hell are my clothes?"

Sarah frowned as she looked into her locker, which was empty as well. "Mine are gone too."

"Looking for these ladies?" Both girls spun to face the intruder they hadn't realized was there. Before they could open their mouths to respond, they found themselves drenched in ice and corn syrup. Both girls shrieked and tried to frantically wipe the icy mixture from their skin.

While they were distracted, their attacker dropped the now empty cups to the ground and reached forward, snatching the towels away from both girls. Finally clearing the slush from their eyes, they faced their assaulter.

"What the fuck is your problem Lopez!" Sarah cried, as Stacy just spluttered wordlessly beside her.

Santana quirked her eyebrow and crossed her arms across her chest. "My problem? I don't have a problem, but by the sounds of it you two still do."

"Yeah at the moment my problem seems to be that some psychotic bitch just threw a slushy at me," Sarah retorted.

Santana shook her head in disappointment. "Now I think we both know that's not what I was referring to, and trust me, the slushy is the least of your worries." Santana looked back and forth between the two girls disapprovingly. "I tried to tell them that letting you go without punishment was a bad idea, but Berry insisted that revenge would just lead to more conflict."

"Berry," Sarah spat venomously. "I should have know that little fashion reject was behind this."

Santana advanced and shoved the other girl backwards. "Why don't you take a page from your friend's book," Santana looked at the still silent Stacy, "and shut the hell up." When the other girl snapped her mouth closed Santana continued. "Actually, Berry made Quinn promise not to torment you. She seems to think there is something to be said for turning the other cheek. Me? I'm more a fan of kicking it."

"But Quinn promised, so that was the end of it." Santana grinned broadly. "Of course she didn't make me promise not to do anything. I was starting to wonder if maybe Berry had a point, forgiveness and all that shit, but based on the little conversation you were having earlier, it's clear that you are just as dumb as I thought you were."

"So what? You're in love with Berry now too? Whatever does poor Brittany have to say about that," Sarah asked snidely.

"I think it's great. San is so cute when she's trying to pretend to hate Rachel," Brittany piped up, appearing from around the next row of lockers. Santana flushed in embarrassment and turned to her blonde companion.

"B I thought I told you to stay hidden," Santana hissed, not wanting the blonde to be caught in the crossfire.

"I tried but it was boring, and I missed you," Brittany pouted, coming to wrap her arms around one of Santana's. The blonde eyed the two naked and dye stained girls disdainfully. "Are you almost done San I thought maybe we could go get some _ice cream,_" Brittany said suggestively. Santana smirked at her girlfriend, something she had made official when she was begging B to forgive her, and turned back to the other two cheerleaders.

"Yeah I think I'm just about done here." She nodded her head towards the door. "You two are free to go."

Stacy frowned and spoke for the first time since Santana had revealed herself. "But we don't have any clothes."

Santana laughed. "Sure don't. I guess you will just have to figure out a way to get home without being seen." Her eyes turned cold. "Just like Rachel did." She nodded towards the door again. "Now get out of my sight before you really start to piss me off. And a word of advice, don't even think about going after Berry for this. You will not be happy with the results."

Sarah looked like she wanted to stay and argue, but Stacy silently tugged on her arm and led her towards the door. Santana wasn't joking, and staying would only make it worse, besides it was dark and hopefully they could hide out somewhere until they could reach someone to come pick them up.

Santana watched the two girls disappear and turned to give Brittany a kiss. "You're not mad at me now are you?" Santana asked playfully.

Brittany frowned in confusion. "Why would I be mad?"

"Well you got mad at me last week for being mean to Rachel, this isn't that different."

"Don't be silly San, this is totally different. Those bitches deserved it." Brittany paused. "You called her Rachel. You like her."

Santana frowned, not recalling the incident. "No I don't." Even though she was currently in the deserted Cheerios locker room, after just having basically defended Berry's honor, she refused to concede that she actually liked the small annoying singer. This was just a matter of teaching Stacy and Sarah their place. If they allowed such a slight to the head cheerleaders' girlfriend to go unpunished it would be anarchy. She did not have a soft spot for Berry.

Brittany laughed. "You do, you totally have a crush on Rachel," Brittany teased.

"B!" Santana cried horrified. "I have no such thing." Looking around the deserted space she checked once again to make sure they were totally alone. "Don't ever say that again, god that's just…" Santana shuddered. "Wrong. So very, very wrong. Besides, you know you're the only girl for me."

Brittany pouted playfully, "I better be." She grabbed Santana's hand and led her toward the door. Santana paused and made sure it locked behind them, she didn't want those two getting back in after they left. "C'mon, let's go get some _ice cream."_

"Anything you want B," Santana replied eagerly, not noticing the two naked figures crouched in the bushes alongside the building as she passed.

**The End(for real this time)  
**


End file.
